CHANDIGARH: With 1304 candidates are in a fray for the Punjab Assembly Elections for 117 assembly constituencies scheduled to be held on February 20, 2022, there are two transgenders and 93 are women, while, 1209 candidates are men, informed Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Dr S Karuna Raju here on Thursday.
He said that among all the candidates, nine candidates are of 25-years-old age and six candidates are above the 80-years-old of which 94-years-old candidate contesting from constituency number 83 Lambi in Sri Muktsar Sahib is the oldest one.
He further said that there is total 21499804 registered voters in the state for these elections, out of which 11298081 male, 10200996 female, 727 third genders, 158341 PWD voters, 109624 service voters, 1608 NRI voters and 509205 Voters are above the age of 80.
He informed that there are 24740 polling stations in 14684 polling locations. Out of which 2013 polling stations on 1051 polling locations are identified as critical, he said, while adding that all polling booths will be covered under webcasting on polling day. He also informed that a minimum half-section of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and remaining force from Punjab Police will be deployed at critical polling locations as per norms prescribed by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Dr Raju also informed that to ensure free, fair, transparent and peaceful elections as many as 972 flying squad teams (FSTs), 857 static surveillance teams (SSTs), 479 video surveillance teams (VSTs), 159 video viewing team (VVTs) and 119 accounting teams have been deployed across the state and are working round the clock.
Meanwhile, the voting would be held on February 20, 2022 (Sunday) from 08.00 AM to 06.00 PM and counting of votes would be on March 10th, 2022 (Thursday).