Karwar: With Election Commission of India extending voting timing (7:00 am to 6:00 pm), the voters have extra time to cast their votes for the May 12 elections.

The administration has put in place all the required facilities to conduct free and fair elections on Saturday. There are six constituencies in the district. Overall, there are 1,438 polling stations and as many as 9,716 staff have been deployed on election duty. All the officials have reached their respective polling stations.

Earlier in the day, the officials who were deputed on election duty were given instructions on how to use EVMs and VVPATs at St Michel Convent premises. Later, in batch-wise the poll officials were transported to their respective polling booths in KSRTC buses. Along with EVMs and VVPAT machines.

There are a total of 11.45 lakh voters in the district.

Thirty-three polling stations have been identified as hyper sensitive and additional security has been given to these polling stations.

To make sure that no untoward incident takes place during the election, the administration has deputed 3,500 police officials, 18 platoons of para-military and 240 micro observers have been deputed.