Election department allays poll call delay fears

SHILLONG: Chief Electoral Officer Frederick Kharkongor said there is no unusual delay in announcing the poll date for Meghalaya.
Kharkongor said he had received several queries from people about the poll date as fake dates were circulated on social media. The poll date would be announced in due course of time, he added.
Stating that there are no unusual delays, sources in the Election Department said in the general elections in 1998, date was announced on January 20 and elections were held on February 16 whereas in 2003, announcement was made on January 31 and the polls were held on February 26.
Again in 2008, the date was announced on January 14 and the elections were held on March 3.
Kharkongor further said the EC makes it mandatory for verification of VVPAT paper slips of a randomly selected polling station in each constituency.
The verification will be undertaken after the completion of the last round of counting of votes recorded in EVM. “The random selection will be done through draw of lots by the returning officer concerned in the presence of candidates and their agents and the general observer appointed by the EC and the entire exercise will be videographed,” Kharkongor said.
He also clarified that as per the revised instructions issued on January 11, if the Control Unit (CU) or the Ballot Unit (BU) does not work properly during actual polls, replacement of the whole set of EVM, including CU, BU and VVPAT, is required.
“However, in such case only one vote to each contesting candidate, including NOTA, should be polled in the mock poll. This replaces earlier directives where no mock poll was required,” Kharkongor said. He added that if only VVPAT needs to be replaced, then no mock poll is required.