SHILLONG, MAY 28: The bye-election to the Ampati assembly constituency ended peacefully on Monday with over 90 per cent of the voters came out to exercise their franchise.
Polling conducted in 39 polling stations was held from 7 am till 5 pm. Ampati, a constituency represented by former chief minister Mukul Sangma for 25 years, has a total of 28,673 registered voters.
Speaking to reporters, state’s chief electoral officer (CEO) Frederick Roy Kharkongor said, “The polls have been successfully conducted without any untoward incidents reported. The voting percentage till 5.45 pm was recorded at 90.42 percent.”
In 24 out of 39 polling stations, the voting percentage was above 90 percent. Kharkongor said the highest voter turnout was recorded by Jelbongpara polling station at 96.81 per cent while lowest was at Morkona polling station with only 83.52 per cent.
The constituency in the February 27 Assembly polls had registered a voter turnout of 90.70 percent.
Asked, the CEO said, “There are 14 sectors and these are the reports from most of the sectors. However, the DO is still in the process of compiling the complete figure but more or less it will hover around this (figure).”
Informing that there were no reports of machine failure, Kharkongor however said only one VVPAT machine was changed at Rongkamgre polling station after it had some printing errors as the paper slip failed to cut.
“Since it demonstrated little error, it was changed. Once VVPAT changes polling continued without any disturbance and we got no other reports of either ballot unit or VVPAT failure,” he said.
Out of 61 control units, 61 ballot units and 65 VVPATs that were provided for the polling, 39 Bus, 39 CUs and 40 VVPAT were used including the one that was changed, he added.
Also, there was one all women polling station, one model polling station while five polling stations were put under web casting during the polling day, which also witnessed large number of persons with disabilities casting their vote.
According to the CEO, crèches were also introduced in polling stations, where there are large numbers of mothers with small children.
He said that this time, there were no reports on polling stations where the presiding officers failed to clear the mock poll data adding improvement have been through training and pasting of stickers to remind presiding officers on need to clear the mock poll data.
Meanwhile, Kharkongor said he said four companies of central armed police forces were deployed in all 39 polling stations even as one company will be retained to guard the strong room.
On the other hand, he said that a total of Rs 9.94 lakh cash was seized by the flying squad in two separate occasions recently.
“We are yet to ascertain whether they belong to any party but the cash was seized from individuals by the flying squads and a committee headed by the deputy commissioner is in the process to ascertain it,” he said.
He said four companies of central armed police forces were deployed in all 39 polling stations even as one company will be retained to guard the strong room.
The Election Commission has also restricted exit polls and publication of any such results on May 28.
Prior to the election, several FIRs and counter FIRs were filed for alleged poll code violations by the ruling NPP and the Opposition Congress.
The Home Minister, the Leader of Opposition and an MLA were charged with poll code violation and the election office is scrutinising all angles, an official said.
The bye-election was necessitated following Mukul Sangma who won from both Ampati and Songsak seats decided to leave the Ampati seat.
The opposition Congress has fielded Mukul’s daughter Miani D Shira against the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance candidate Clement G Momin and an independent candidate.
Meanwhile, the result for the bye-election will be declared on May 1.
By Our Reporter
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