Voting begins for urban local body elections
Voting began in urban regions spread across 38 districts at 7 AM with Tamil Nadu State Election Commission ensuring monitoring polling stations through web streaming and CCTV cameras and state police deploying nearly 1 lakh personnel for security.
Authorities said arrangements like ramps and availability of wheelchairs have also been ensured. As many as 57,778 candidates are in the fray for 12,607 posts of ward members in 648 urban local bodies including municipal corporations, municipalities and town panchayats and the voting exercise began in over 31,000 polling stations.
In Chennai, out of the 5,013 polling booths, 213 have been identified as vulnerable and 54 as ‘critical’ and adequate security arrangements are in place, police said adding as many as 390 mobile parties and a total of 22,000 police personnel have been deployed here as part of efforts to ensure peaceful polling.
While the time for voting is from 7 AM to 6 PM, the last 1 hour is earmarked to people who have been affected by coronavirus.