Ballot papers to be used for Bengaluru civic body polls: State Election Commission

Use of ballot papers, he said, was an old procedure. “Developed countries like the US, too, are using ballot papers. For all elections (in Karnataka), except Assembly and Lok Sabha, such as grama panchayat and cooperative elections, ballot papers are still used,” Sangreshi said.

Sangreshi said there was a specific provision in the GBA Act which allowed conducting polls using EVMs or ballot papers. The decision to adopt ballot papers for GBA elections was arrived at by the SEC after consultation with all stakeholders, he said.

In April last year, the Karnataka Cabinet recommended that SEC switch to ballot papers for local body polls in the state. EVMs were first used for Bengaluru civic body elections in 1996, making it one of the earliest civic bodies to adopt them.

On whether the state Cabinet decision had any bearing on the SEC’s call, Sangreshi responded in the negative.

Voter data

R Ramachandran, Special Commissioner (Elections), GBA, said there were 88,91,411 voters in five corporations. The number of male voters was 45,69,193, female voters 45,20,583 and 1,635 voters registered as others.

As many as 8,044 polling booths have been identified, he said. Among the five corporations, Bengaluru West has 112 wards and 27.25 lakh voters, the highest. Bengaluru North and South have 72 wards each, with populations of 19.54 lakh and 17.44 lakh, respectively. Bengaluru Central has 63 wards with 14.25 lakh voters, and Bengaluru East has 50 wards with 10.41 lakh voters.

Among the 369 wards within the GBA limits, the highest number of voters was in Ward 23 of Bengaluru West City Corporation, and Ward 16 of Bengaluru East City Corporation had the fewest, with 10,926 voters.

The number of voters for GBA polls is subject to revision as the numbers will vary after new additions, deletions and verification of voters by Booth Level Officers, Ramachandran said.