Guwahati,  Feb 22: Nitin  Khade, IAS Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Assam addressed a press conference  regarding ensuing State Assembly Election at Janata Bhawan in Guwahati today.

The Election Department has taken several measures and initiatives to ensure a free and fair election in Assam. 

•     Notification for first phase election (March 27) will be issued on March 2, for second phase (April 2) on March 5 and the for the thirds phase (April 6) on March 12.
•    Last date for filing nomination: March 9 (Ist phase poll), March 12 (2nd phase poll) and March 19 (3rd phase poll)

•    Dates of scrutiny:  March 10 (for Ist phase poll), March 15 (for 2nd phase poll), March 19 (3rd phase poll)

•    Last date for withdrawal: March 12 (Ist phase poll), March 17 (2nd phase poll), March 22 (3rd phase poll)

•    Counting of votes: May 2

•    Date of Completion of poll process: May 4

Voters details: 

Total General voters: 23186362
Male 11742661, Female 11443259, Third Gender (TG) 442, No. of service voters 62134, Overseas electors 11, D-Voter 108596
PwD voters
Total voters : 132081 including 69261 Male and 62809 Female, 11 TG.

Polling Stations 

Total polling stations 33,530 including 5325 auxiliary polling stations, 2125 critical polling stations and 338 polling stations have vulnerable hamlets

New EPIC : 520331 (62 % distributed)

Broad initiatives for COVID-safe election:
►    In view of the COVID situation and need for maintaining COVID protocol and COVID appropriate behaviour, Chief Electoral Officer in consultation with the Nodal Officer for COVID-19 in Assam has come up with Standard Operating Protocols for various processes related to General Election to Assam Legislative Assembly 2021
►    The Election Commission of India, on 21st August 2020, had issued a broad guideline which was followed during the General Election to Legislative Assembly of Bihar. These guidelines shall be followed during the conduct of General Election to Assam Legislative Assembly 2021
►    All election officials and employees in Assam will be treated as frontline workers and will be vaccinated for COVID 19 w.e.f. 01.03.2021. 
►    COVID mitigation facilities like sanitisers, thermal scanner, soap and hand washing facilities shall be part of Assured Minimum Facilities in each polling stations across the State. 
►    Campaign by the political parties/contesting candidates: 
    Door to Door Campaign- Subject to any other restriction(s) including extant COVID-19 guidelines, a group of 5 (five) persons including candidates, excluding security personnel, if any, is allowed to do door to door campaigning.   
    Road Shows - The convoy of vehicles should be broken after every 5 (five) vehicles instead of 10 vehicles (excluding the security vehicles, if any). The interval between two sets of convoys of vehicles should be half an hour instead of gap of 100 meters. 
o    Election Meetings - Public gatherings/ rallies may be conducted subject to adherence to extant COVID-19 guidelines. District Election Officer should take following steps for this purpose:  
    Anybody violating instructions on COVID19 measures will be liable to proceeded against as per the provisions of Section 51 to 60 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, besides legal action under Section 188 of the IPC, and other legal provisions as applicable, as specified in Order No. 40-3/2020-DM-I(A) dated 25th November, 2020 of Ministry of Home Affairs.  

New Initiatives for PwD Voters and Senior Citizens above 80 years in view of COVID-19:
o    Postal Ballot- Option of Postal Ballot facility has been extended to the electors of following categories:  
    Electors, who are marked as Persons with Disabilities (PwD)  
    Electors above the age of 80 years   
    Electors employed in notified Essential services  
    All such voters in the above categories will have to apply for the Postal Ballot within 5 days of notification for election in their Assembly Constituencies, if they wish to use the option of Postal Ballot for voting.
►    Publicity of Safety Measures: In view of current situation of the pandemic, special outreach activities are being carried out to publicize the safety measures to be undertaken during elections. Contactless and digital mediums for all outreach activities i.e Television, Print, Social Media etc are being preferred. Specialized awareness campaigns for contactless awareness and demonstration of EVM-VVPAT shall be undertaken.
Training details 
Total personnel to be trained for General Election 2021 to State Legislative Assembly, Assam is 2,41,269
•    19 State Level Master Trainers have been trained by National Level Master Trainers deputed by the ECI, who in turn trained 150 District Level Master Trainers and 2591 Assembly Level Master Trainers. Also, 177 IT Nodal Officers (State, District and Assembly Level) have been trained in order to handle the ICT applications and mobile Apps to be used in the conduct and reporting of the Election.
•    The DLMTs and ALMTs in turn will train the rest 2,38,509 personnel including polling personnel and various levels of officials managing the cells looking after various aspects of Election.
•    A total of 6,93,127 number of trainings (Rounds x Personnel) will be conducted, out of which 39,175 have been already been conducted as on 26-02-2021.
•    The first round of training for the polling officials in the district is reported to be completed on 10th March 2021.