The chief election commissioner, Mr S.Y. Quraishi, said on Friday that the commission had received 7,120 applications from NRIs seeking permission to vote in the Assembly elections on April 13.
“Of them, almost 7,000 NRIs submitted their applications in person and the rest by post,” he told mediapersons here. “NRIs will have no right for casting postal votes. They will have to be physically present and should be casting votes in the booths where their names appear.”
Election expenditure observers would reach Kerala on March 19, and the team of poll observers would be arriving in the state a week later, said Mr Quraishi.
Addressing a news conference after holding talks with representatives of political parties and top bureaucrats, Mr Quraishi said the commission intended to deploy a slew of measures, including ‘web casting’ facility and shadow account maintenance of election expenditure by candidates for the smooth conduct of a free and fair election. He added that reports were being readied on where all the central forces should be deployed during the election.
“Contesting candidates will have to open separate a bank account to manage their election expenditure,” said the CEC.
Mr Quraishi also declined to comment on EC’s directive against extension of rice at `2 per kg scheme by the Kerala government.