EC allows booths to distribute unofficial voter ID slips at 100 metres from polling station entrance

New Delhi: Seeking to rationalise poll day management, the EC on Friday decided to allow parties and candidates to set up booths to distribute unofficial voter identification slips at 100 metres from the polling station entrance.Till now, the limit was 200 metres from the “polling location”.In another move aimed at helping electors, the Election Commission (EC) decided to set up mobile phone deposit counters outside polling stations.

The EC said that in a move aimed at improving election day facilitation, it rationalised the permissible norms for canvassing in line with the electoral laws to 100 metres from the entrance of the polling station.However, electioneering will not be allowed within a 100-metre radius around the polling station on the day of polling.“Therefore, the booths set up by the candidates on poll day for issuing unofficial identity slips to electors, in case the electors are not carrying their official Voter Information Slips (VIS) issued by the commission, can now be set up just beyond 100 metres of any polling station,” it said.One “polling location”, such as a school, can have multiple polling stations.