Malappuram: Amid speculations over the cancellation of the Nilambur assembly bypoll, Malappuram district collector V R Vinod on Friday declared that the preparations for the byelection have been completed in the constituency.

"We are expecting the announcement of the election soon and there is no information about cancelling it. The district administration is fully ready to conduct the election peacefully and perfectly.  There will be special arrangements for voters over 85 years to cast votes at their houses," the collector said.

The final electoral roll for the byelection will be published on May 5, and there will be opportunities to add names to the roll thereafter, the Collector added.

The district administration has requested the Election Commission of India (ECI) to restrict the code of conduct to the constituency rather than enforcing it across the district.  The Collector expressed optimism that the Commission would consider their plea.

Polling booths have been arranged based on a ratio of one booth per 1,100 voters. As a result, 59 new polling booths have been added in Nilambur constituency, bringing the total to 263. With the increased number of booths, additional EVMs and VVPAT units will undergo preliminary checks shortly, the Collector said.

As of Friday, 20,803 applications to add names to the electoral roll have been received in the constituency. Of these, 15,296 applications were received up to the publication of the draft roll on April 8, with a further 5,507 submitted afterwards. The special summary revision was conducted between April 21 and 24.

Between February 3 and 7, preliminary inspections of the voting machines and VVPAT units to be used in the by-election were carried out by authorised engineers from Bharat Electronics Ltd in the presence of political party representatives. The inspection covered 408 ballot units, 408 control units, and 408 VVPAT units - all of which have now been verified.  Special training sessions were held on February 13, 14, and 17 for Electoral Registration Officers (ERO), Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AERO), Sector Officers, and Sector Police Officers. Additional training for BLOs was conducted on February 18 and April 15.

Chief Electoral Officer Dr Rathan U Kelkar visited the constituency between April 7 and 9 as part of the by-election preparations. During the visit, he inspected polling booths and held discussions with officials and political party representatives.