Page 267 - Leap of Faith Vol - 2

Spotlight on Recent Elections Chapter 12

them 4,04,802 were PwD electors; 1,417 third gender
electors; and 9,87,999 were senior citizens in 80+
category. Votes were cast in 51,782 polling stations.
Some novel measures were adopted by the Election
Commission to strengthen the expenditure monitoring
system. The Commission issued a Standard Operating
Procedure (SOP) for Flying Squad and Statistic
Surveillance Teams for seizure and handling of cash and
other items to prevent inducement free elections. Other
measures included calculating notional expenditure on
account of campaign vehicles, based on number of
vehicles for which permission has been granted by the
Returning Officer. Similarly, the Commission decided
candidates' booth set up outside the polling stations
would be considered to be part of individual campaign by
the candidate and not by the way of general campaign of
the political party for the purpose of calculating
candidate's expenditure. Also, all political parties,
sponsoring candidates for legislative assembly elections
were required to maintain day to day account of all Siddis in their traditional attire, Gujarat Elections 2022
election campaign expenses and submit the final
Siddis are believed to have descended from Ethiopian
accounts to the Commission/Chief Electoral Officer
tribes, brought to India during the medieval age as part
within 75 days of completion of elections. Such accounts
of Arab slave trade on the Indian Ocean. ey attained
would be uploaded on the Election Commission's
prominence in history in the 17 century as rulers of
website for public viewing. In order to reduce litigation
Janjira, an island off Murud, a coastal town in Raigarh
relating to election expenditure, a reconciliation meeting
would be convened by District Election Officer before district of Maharashtra. Janjira, including Jafrabad, in
final submission of accounts, on the 26 day after Kathiawar region of Gujarat, was a princely state in
declaration of results. British India, ruled by Siddis. Siddis predominate in
Jambur, a village in Gir-Somnath district, previously a
In the first phase of Gujarat elections, 89 Assembly
part of princely state of Junagarh. For the first time in
Constituencies went to poll on December 1. The turnout electoral history, during the recent Gujarat elections
was 63.3 percent, lower than in the corresponding phase
(2022), a special polling station was set up in Jambura-
in 2017. A break-up of the voting figures showed that Madhupur. Siddis even fielded an independent
urban constituencies conspicuously lagged behind their
rural counterparts in electoral participation. Such a gap candidate. Voting in Jambura was held in the first phase
of the elections.
was evident in Himachal Pradesh as well, where urban

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