As many as 1304 candidates are in the fray for the Punjab Assembly Elections for 117 assembly constituencies scheduled to be held on 20 February.
The chief electoral officer (CEO) S Karuna Raju on Thursday said of these 1304 candidates, there are two transgenders, 93 women and 1209 candidates are men.
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He said 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, former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, contesting from Lambi constituency in Sri Muktsar Sahib is the oldest one.
Raju said there is a total of 21499804 registered voters in the state for these elections, out of which 11298081 male, 10200996 female, 727 third genders, 158341 PWD (people with disabilities) voters, 109624 service voters, 1608 non-Indian resident (NRI) voters, and 509205 voters are above the age of 80.
The CEO informed 24740 polling stations have been set up in 14684 polling locations. Out of which 2013 polling stations on 1051 polling locations are identified as critical, he said adding all polling booths will be covered under webcasting on polling day.
Raju 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).
He said 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 teams (VVTs), and 119 accounting teams have been deployed across the state and are working round the clock.
Meanwhile, the voting would be held on 20 February (Sunday) from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and the counting of votes would be on 10 March (Thursday).
