2019 Lok Sabha Elections: EC Announces Poll Schedule; Seven Phase Polling From 11 April-19 May, Counting On 23 May

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday (10 March) announced the schedule for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The announcement of the dates of the elections was made by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora.

The polls will be conducted in seven phases with the polling for the first phase beginning on 11 April in 91 constituencies of 20 states. The second phase voting will be conducted on 18 April in 97 constituencies of 13 states while the third phase polling will be on 23 April in 115 constituencies of 14 states.

The fourth phase will be on 29 April in 71 constituencies of 9 states of and fifth phase on 6 May in 51 constituencies of 7 states. The sixth phase of polling will be held on 12 May in 59 constituencies of 7 states and the last, seventh phase of the election will be held on 19 May in 59 constituencies of 8 states.

The counting for the polls will be done on 23 May and results are expected to be declared the very same day.

With the announcement of the polls, the model code of conduct has come into effect across the country.

The CEC said that many rounds of meetings were conducted for the preparations of the polls. He informed that near about 900 million voters will be exercising their voting rights in the upcoming elections.

He also informed that Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) will be used with the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) at all the polling stations.