Dist Council polls likely in Feb: HDR

SHILLONG: Elections to three autonomous district councils will be held in the middle of February next year.
Indicating this here on Friday, the District Council Affairs Minister HDR Lyngdoh said that the State Cabinet would meet in the first week of January to decide the election date.
While ruling out the possibilities of extending the tenure of the present House, he said that the State Government would like to conduct the election within the stipulated timeframe.
On delimitation of the council constituencies, he said, “We have submitted the delimitation Bills of KHADC and JHADC to the Governor Dr KK Paul for his approval as per the recommendations of the Delimitation Committee.”
Lyngdoh said that if the Governor gives his assent to the proposed delimitation Bills of two councils then the Government would conduct the upcoming district council elections in the delimited constituencies.
When asked about GHADC’s inability to complete the delimitation exercise, the DCA Minister said that the government would decide what needs to be done with GHADC once it completes the delimitation exercise.
“At the moment we would like to focus on the two ADCs which have completed the exercise,” he said.
HSPDP candidates: Meanwhile, the HSPDP’s State Election Committee (SEC) will meet in the first week of January to finalise candidates for the 2014 district council elections.
“We are expecting to finalise the candidates in the meeting,” HSPDP president Hoping Stone Lyngdoh said here on Friday.
According to Lyngdoh, the party is likely to release the first list after the next meeting of the election committee.
He said that the party was keen to contest in all the seats of both the KHADC and JHADC.
“We have received several applications. But the party would take winnability factor into consideration before selecting candidates,” he added.