By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: More than half of the candidates who had contested the February 23 Assembly election in the State, have forfeited their security deposits.
As many as 182 candidates out of the total 345 in the fray forfeited their security amount, the Election department informed.
Among the 182 candidates, as many as 172 male candidates lost their security deposits. Out of the 25 women candidates in the fray, 10 of them forfeited their security deposit.
As per norm, if the candidate fails to secure at least one-sixth of the total votes polled in the constituency, they would lose their security deposit.
As per the guideline of the Election Commission of India, a general candidate has to pay a security deposit of Rs 10,000, while candidates belonging to the Scheduled Caste/ Tribe categories have to deposit Rs 5,000.