Election dept seeks uninterrupted power supply on polling day

SHILLONG: As Meghalaya continues to bear the brunt of load shedding, the State Chief Electoral Officer Prashant Naik on Friday said that the Election department would request MeECL to provide uninterrupted power supply during the election period.
Speaking to media persons, Naik said that the respective district authorities have already made a request to the MeECL to provide uninterrupted power supply on the day of polling.
Naik warned that the Election department would take strong action against anyone for dereliction of election duties, even as he said that training programmes have been organised for the polling officers to ensure that the election process is conducted in a professional way.
“They have to do their job in the best possible way or we will take stringent action against them,” Naik warned the election officials.
On the fears of manipulation of EVMs, Naik said that the Election Commission of India is willing to entertain anyone who can demonstrate that the EVMs can be manipulated, even though he admitted that EVMs, at times, can suffer from malfunction.
The Election department is slated to use around 3300 EVMs in the April 9 election in the State.
Explaining the absence of VVPAT in the Meghalaya election, Naik said that there was not enough time to complete the ground works for use of VVPAT in the state.