UNION TERRITORY OF PONDICHERRY ELECTIONS DEPARTMENT REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTIONS, 2006 TO THE PONDICHERRY LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY S. KUMARASWAMY, I.A.S., Chief Electoral Officer Pondicherry CONTENTS Page No. Foreword 1 PART-A : General Information 1. Schedule of Election Programme 5 2. General Note on Important Aspects 6 3. Important Election Officials a. Chief Electoral Officer & District Election Officers 9 b. Returning Officers & Assistant Returning Officers 10 c. Election Observers 12 4. List of participating Political Parties 14 5. Free Symbols 15 6. Highlights 16 7. Region and Assembly Constituency-wise Electorate details 18 8. Population and Electorate Comparison 19 9. Details of Polling Stations 20 10. Electorate Strength in Polling Stations 21 11. Details of Nominations 22 12. Details of Voter Turnout 23 13. Voter Turnout vis-à-vis the Electorate 24 14. Voter Identification - EPIC & other Documents 25 15. Details of Counting Centres 26 16. Winners and Runners-up at a Glance 27 17. Performance of Political Parties - Summary 29 18. Constituencies won by Political Parties 30 19. Poll Data at a Glance 31 PART B : Assembly Constituency-wise Information 33 PART C: Polling Station-wise votes polled 95 PART D: Assembly Elections over the years 165 Elections Department, No.31, Candappa Mudali Street S. KUMARASWAMY Pondicherry-605 001. Chief Electoral Officer Tel: 2334143, 2233307 Fax: 2337500 Email: [email protected] FOREWORD As the tenure of Legislative Assembly was due to expire on 08.06.2006, the notification calling upon the Electorate of the Union Territory of Pondicherry to elect the members of Pondicherry Legislative Assembly was issued by the Lt.Governor of Pondicherry on 5.04.2006 in respect of Mahe and Yanam regions and on 13.04.2006 in respect of Pondicherry and Karaikal regions and the Election Commission of India had also issued the notifications on the respective dates. The poll was held in two phases - on 3rd May,2006 in case of Mahe and Yanam regions and on 8th May,2006 in case of Pondicherry and Karaikal regions. Counting was held on 11th May, 2006 in all the regions and the results were declared on the same day. This Report on Election is brought out to give general information on the conduct of election and the various data relevant to election matters. This will be useful for the public, the media and the Government officials. The Format of the Report has been substantially improved making it user friendly. In view of the limited number of Constituencies, both the General Report and the Statistical Report are combined. In view of the increase in the number of electors, 153 number of auxiliary polling stations were set up , in addition to the existing 557 number of polling stations. Some notable features of this election include:­ 1. Preparation of error-free Electoral Rolls, 2. 100% EPIC coverage, 3. Use of Electoral Rolls containing photographs of electors. (With around 99% of photograph coverage), 4. Designation of Collector (Pondicherry) and Collector (Karaikal) as District Election Officers in their respective Districts, 5. One Returning Officer and Two Assistant Returning Officers for each of 3 Assembly Constituencies, 6. Opening of 153 Auxiliary Polling Stations in Stations where voters exceeded 1400, 7. Provision of ramps in all the polling stations for the benefit of physically challenged electors. 8. 100% removal of defacement in public as well as private places open to public view. A notification issued banning defacement under Pondicherry Open Places (Prevention of Defacement) Act, 2000, 9. Setting up of toll-free telephone calling facilities in all the 04 regions to record Electoral complaints, 10.Two stage randomisation process for drawing up of Electoral Officials, 11. Polling parties were drawn from the neighbourhood districts of Kerala for Mahe and Andhra Pradesh for Yanam, 12.Introduction of Braille signage on EVMs in all the polling stations in two Assembly constituencies: 21.LAWSPET & 22.COTCHERY on a pilot basis for the benefit of blind voters (as per the direction of the Supreme Court ) 13. Use of digital cameras in all the hypersensitive and sensitive polling stations for photography of all the electors who came to vote 14. Posting up of at least one police personnel with weapon in each polling station. 15.09 General Observers and 03 Expenditure Observers from Election Commission of India monitored the conduct of elections, 16. Conduct of election in an incident and violence free manner 17.Average Poll percentage recorded for all 04 regions is 85.46%. Pondicherry – 85.36%, Karaikal- 85.61%, Mahe – 78.98% and Yanam-96.44%. I sincerely thank all the officials and staff who have contributed a lot for the conduct of this election in free, fair and peaceful manner. S. KUMARASWAMY - 2 - PART-A GENERAL INFORMATION 1. SCHEDULE OF PROGRAMME Dates Sl. Poll Events Phase-2 No. Phase- 1 (Pondicherry & Karaikal (Mahe and Yanam regions) Regions) 1. Issue of Notification Wednesday, Apr.5, 2006 Thursday, Apr.13, 2006 Last Date for making 2. Wednesday Apr.12, 2006 Thursday, Apr.20, 2006 Nominations Yanam: Thu, Apr.13, 2006 3. Scrutiny of Nominations Friday Apr.21, 2006 Mahe: Sat, Apr.15, 2006 Last Date for Yanam: Sat, Apr.15, 2006 4. Withdrawal of Monday, Apr.24, 2006 Mahe: Mon, Apr.17, 2006 Candidature 5. Date of Poll Wednesday May 3, 2006 Monday May 8, 2006 6. Hours of Poll 7.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. 7.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. 7. Counting of Votes on Thursday May 11, 2006 Thursday May 11, 2006 Date before which the 8. Election shall be Saturday May 20, 2006 Saturday May 20, 2006 completed - 5 ­ 2. GENERAL NOTE ON IMPORTANCE ASPECTS A) ELECTORAL ROLLS The Electoral Rolls were finally published on 24.02.2006 with reference to 1st January 2006 as the qualifying date. They were updated till the last date for filing nominations. The total number of electorate as on 20.04.2006 was 659420 (including 360 service electors). This included 339578 female electors (110 female service electors). EPIC coverage was 100%. The Rolls were printed with photographs of electors and the photograph coverage was 99%. B) POLLING STATIONS: 153 number of auxiliary polling stations were set-up in addition to 557 regular polling stations as in some of the cases the number of electors in the polling stations was exceeding 1400. All the auxiliary polling stations were designated as women polling stations and at least one woman polling official was posted. Ramps were provided in all the polling stations as per the directions of the Supreme Court . C) BRAILLE SIGNAGE : Braille Signage was introduced in two Assembly Constituencies: 21.Lawspet and 22.Cotchery for the benefit of blind electors as per the directions of the Supreme Court. The Braille stickers for affixing on the EVM were got prepared through M/s. Electronic Corporation of India Limited. The dummy Braille ballot papers (in English and Tamil) were got printed at Christian Foundation for the Blind-India, Chennai. D) POLLING PESONNEL To ensure neutrality, complete randomization (i.e,two phase randamisation) of the appointment of polling personnel was done using computerised Random Number Generation Technique. First Level of Randomisation - Randomised selection: From the database of eligible employees the required number of polling officials (both Presiding Officers and Polling Officers)were selected randomly and issued appointment orders - 6 - Second Level of Randomisation – Randomised Allotment of Polling stations: One day prior to the day of poll, the randomized allotment of polling stations to the polling officials selected earlier was done and at the time of distribution of polling materials their place of posting was made known. In the case of Yanam and Mahe regions the polling Personnel were deployed from the neighbouring districts of East Godavari (Andhra Pradesh) and Kozhikode (Kerala) respectively as per the directions of the Election Commission of India, to ensure conduct of free and fair election. E) LAW AND ORDER Totally 9 Coys of CPMF were deployed for the Union Territory of Pondicherry (2 Coys in Mahe and 2 Coys in Yanam, 4 Coys in Pondicherry and one coy in Karaikal.) The CPMF personnel manned all the sensitive and hypersensitive polling stations. A mix of CPMF and local Police (2 coys each) were deployed for guarding the strong rooms. F) DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION During Nomination Stage : On a day to day basis, the information relating to nominations was disseminated through the website with the technical assistance of National Informatics Centre, Pondicherry (NIC) After the finalisation of contesting candidates, the affidavits of all the contesting candidates were hosted on the CEO’s website www.ceopondicherry.nic.in. On the Poll Day: The Poll percentage details were disseminated on a continuous basis through the website of the National Informatics Center (NIC), Pondicherry. On The Counting Day : The counting trends and results were disseminated through the websites of the Election Commission of India and NIC, Pondicherry. G) PREVENTION OF DEFACEMENT The District administration had taken effective steps to prevent defacement of public and private places open to public view. A notification banning defacement was issued under the Pondicherry Open Places Prevention of Defacement Act, 2000 (POPPD Act). - 7 - H) BORDER SEALING & CHECK POSTS The borders with the neighbouring States were sealed to check bogus voting, movement of anti-social elements, transportation of illicit liquor, etc. Apart from this, check-posts were set-up in the following locations: Pondicherry District Pondicherry Region: 1. Kanagachettikulam – East Coast Road 2. Mullodai - Cuddalore Border 3. Madagadipet - Villupuram National Highway 4. Maducarai 5. Gorimedu Entrance - Tindivanam Road 6. Thirukkanur Mahe Region : 1. Poozhithala Road - National Highway 2. Mahe Bridge - National Highway 3. Makkuni - Moolakadu 4. Koppalam 5. Gramethi - Chokkili 6.