By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The Pine City on Thursday celebrated Valentine’s Day with a certain twist, where youths pledged to cast their precious votes in the State Assembly election slated for February 23.
The State election Department came up with this unique idea of spreading the message among the youths to exercise their voting rights.
Aptly themed ‘My Vote, My Valentine’, the Department made the best use of the opportunity to reach out to the youths to urge them to come for voting on the all important polling day.
The Department organised a musical evening at Khyndailad in the evening where different music bands enthralled the strong crowd mostly comprising youths.
A stall was also erected which sold roses and encouraged all those who came to buy flowers to write a note for their beloved.
Chief Electoral Officer P Naik said the idea behind the event came up since a lot of young people have enrolled themselves this year and this election will see them exercising their franchise for the first time.
Naik informed that the event was part of the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) programme to spread awareness on the importance of voting, especially among the youths.
As a part of the evening, an open quiz competition was also organised and prizes were awarded. However, media persons were not allowed to participate in the quiz programme, which upset quite a few of them.