Sikkim has 4,23,325 voters: Chief Electoral Officer R Telang

Sikkim has 4,23,325 voters after addition of 16,012 electors during the summary revision of electoral rolls, state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) R Telang said. The CEO told a press conference that the total electors/voters in the state as on date is 4,23,325 which includes 2,16,222 male voters and 2,07,103 female voters. Telang said two persons are from the third gender and 2,000 voters have identified themselves as PWD or Persons with Disabilities during the summary revision of electoral rolls held during the month of September and October 2018.

The CEO said that since the population profile of Sikkim is young, maximum voters fall within the age group of 18 to 45 years. Telang said hard copies of the electoral roll would be made available in a few days and a copy each would be provided free of cost to all recognised political parties, while registered political parties and members of the public can obtain it from the CEO’ office or District Election Officer on payment of a nominal amount fixed by the Commission.

The Sikkim Assembly election is also due along with the Lok Sabha election this year. Sikkim had 3,70,731 voters during 2014 state Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

He informed that there will be 567 numbers of polling stations for the upcoming general elections, which includes 51 Sangha polling stations.

Telang said that there could still be some additions and some deletions in the electoral list till seven days prior to the filing of nominations.

The CEO said the purpose of Thursday's programme was also to raise awareness about Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trial (VVPAT) to members of the media and the political parties.

He informed that the First Level Checking (FLC) of the EVM machines have been completed and have been shared with all political parties. Telang urged the political party representatives to

sensitise their colleagues about the role of polling agents and booth level agents to aid the voters in the polling process.