SHILLONG: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), A K Joti has allayed fears that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) to be used for holding the upcoming Assembly polls in the state can be tempered while saying that slips from one VVPAT in every constituency will be counted and matched with control units.
Speaking to media persons here on Saturday, Joti exuded confidence that the ECI would conduct the upcoming Assembly polls in a free and transparent way. He said similar exercise of matching slips from VVPAT with controlling units was taken in the recently concluded Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh polls.
Stating that more than 32,000 new voters have been enrolled in the state under the special summary revision, he added that 45 per cent of them are first time voters in the age group of 18-20 years besides informing that names of 20,608 dead voters have been removed from the electoral roll.
Expressing happiness over the fact that EPIC card coverage in Meghalaya is 100 per cent, the CEC directed the State Election Department to deliver the EPIC card to voters by mid-January.
Informing that there will be 3028 polling stations in the state, he, however, expressed concern that many of the polling stations did not have electricity connection and the State Power department had been asked to take necessary action to provide electricity connection.
One of the most innovative feature of this election the fact that there will be 60 polling stations in the state, which will be totally “Women polling station” as it will be managed by women officers and only women voters will be allowed to vote there.
Responding to a query about the use of money power in the polls, he said that flying squads besides Air intelligence units in Guwahati and Umroi airport would be setup besides officers from the Income Tax Department would be deployed who will keep a tab on the entire electoral exercise.
The CEC, however, did not mentioned as to when the elections would be held. He informed that vulnerability mapping of sensitive, critical polling stations had already been done.
According to Joti, requirement for Central Para Military Force has been worked out and accordingly Ministry of Home Affairs, will send central forces to the state for smooth conduct of elections.
It may be mentioned that there are 19 constituencies in the state which have inter-state boundary with Assam while 11 other constituencies have international border with Bangladesh.
The full Bench of the Election Commission during their two-day visit to the State capital held several meetings with political parties, State police, district administrations besides others wings of the government.
During the meeting, political parties raised several issues with the CEC. Some of the parties asked for installation of CCTV cameras in the polling stations, some also urged the Election Commission to take measures to stop the practice of money distribution in the election.
Some political parties also asked CEC to ensure that VIP candidates did not move around with security personnel besides there were also demand for increasing the number of polling stations in the state.