SHILLONG, JAN 18: The Election Commission of India (ECI) today announced the 2018 elections to State Legislative Assembly will be held in a single phase on February 27 even as the Model Code of Conduct has come into force.
Meghalaya will go for fresh polls along with two other North Eastern states – Tripura and Nagaland. However, voting in Tripura will be held on February 18 and Nagaland on February 27 but counting in all the three states will be on March 3.
“With this announcement, the model code of conduct (MCC) comes into force with immediate effect and all its provisions will apply to the whole state of Meghalaya,” state’s chief electoral officer (CEO) FR Kharkongor told reporters.
The date of issue of the gazette notification is on January 31, last date of nomination is on February 7, date for scrutiny of nominations is on February 8, and last date for withdrawal of candidatures is on February 12.
“The date of polling is on February 27 and the date of counting has been fixed on March 3 while the date before which the entire election process shall be completed is on March 5,” he said.
The tenure of the present ninth Meghalaya Legislative Assembly, which comprising of 60 seats will expire on March 6. Currently, the Congress party is in power for the last eight years in the state.
Kharkongor said that the MCC will be applicable for all contesting candidates, political parties, state government and also Union government in so far as announcement of policy decision is concerned.
“With the operation of the MCC, all such activities will come under its ambit and henceforth any such activity which rolls out will be in violation of the MCC and therefore will attract provisions,” he added.
He also informed that the government of the poll-bound state has been directed to ensure there is no misuse of official machinery or position during the MCC period.
According to him, the ECI has also made elaborate arrangement for ensuring the effective implementation of the MCC guidelines and any violation of these guidelines will be strictly dealt with.
As per the revised ceiling for election expenditure fixed by the ECI, the chief electoral officer said that the maximum limit for election expenditures for all constituencies is Rs 20 lakh per candidate.
“All candidates will be required to furnish their accounts expenditure before 30 days of the declaration of the results,” he said while adding that candidates who fail to lodge their expenses are liable to be disqualified.
He pointed out that there are incidents in the past who have been disqualified after they failed to lodge their expenditures.
All the district election officers (DEOs) will be swinging into actions if there is any case of violation of MCC, he added.
The voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) will be used for the first time in all the 3082 polling stations spread across the 60 constituencies of Meghalaya.
For this, extensive awareness has been taken place since the month of October last year, the CEO said.
He further informed that Web-casting will also be done for the very first time in the upcoming Assembly polls in the state.
A total of 193 polling stations will have direct web-casting where devices will be installed to enable the CEO or DEOs to have a direct view of the actual situation in these polling stations.
“This is another layer of monitoring and poll supervision to see whether poll officials are doing their duty and ensure voters are allowed to exercise their franchise in a free, fair and transparent manner,” he added.
Apart from this, there will also be 60 all women polling stations to be manned by women polling officers besides having model polling stations.
“The number of model polling stations are being worked out which have assured minimum facilities like drinking water, electricity, ramps, separate queues, will be provided to make whole process more voter-friendly,” he said.
In Meghalaya out of 60 constituencies, 55 are reserved for STs and 5 for General.
It may be mentioned, Meghalaya has registered 18, 31, 487 electorates – which include 9, 24,264 females and 9, 07,223 males.
In the last 2013 elections, the turnout of voters was at 87.97 percent, Kharkongor however said, “As we go into the polls, we will endeavour to improve this poll percentage.”
Of the 3082 polling stations, the CEO said 2025 are categorized as normal polling stations, 536 are vulnerable, 454 are critical and 67 are both vulnerable as well as critical.
“However, this is a dynamic process because it changes from day to day as there could be certain areas which were normal but turn sensitive. We will be reviewing this aspect very closely,” he said.
Kharkongor said police are working on revisiting some of the polling stations so that their status of vulnerable or critical can be further refined adding in few days time, a final picture will be arrived.
Asked, he said as per the data base, there are about 21,000 plus polling officials.
With the state having two main divisions – Garo Hills division and Khasi-Jaintia Hills division, the CEO informed the DC Shillong with about 17 constituencies, will made available polling officials for smaller districts especially with regards to micro observers as these are mostly taken from central institutions.
Similarly, DC Tura with 11 constituencies under his command will provide the needs and requirements of smaller districts in that division, he added.
By Our Reporter
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