TURA: State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) F. R. Kharkongor visited Ampati on Wednesday and held a meeting with the district administration and district election machinery to review the level of preparations for the upcoming by-election to the 53-Ampati Assembly Constituency.
Kharkongor was accompanied by Additional CEO T. Lyngwa and Senior Systems Engineer Jeffrey Nongrum during the two-day visit.
South West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner & District Election Officer in-charge H.D.B. Sangma, Additional Deputy Commissioner D.D.Shira, District Police chief Bobby W. Momin, district officials, sector officers and police officers were also present during the review meeting.
While expressing his satisfaction on the overall preparedness for the by-election, Kharkongor recalled that one of the main reasons for the glitches during the last general elections and the recently concluded election in Williamnagar was that a few officers had failed to clear the data from EVMs and VVPATs after the mock polls.
In this connection he also asked the sector officers to send sms messages to the presiding officers under their respective sectors as a reminder to clear out the data from their EVMs.
Earlier, District Election Officer in charge H.D.B. Sangma highlighted the preparations and ground work which have been done for the smooth conduct of the by-election while Ampati SP Bobby W. Momin informed on the security measures taken by the district police to ensure free and fair elections.
On Thursday, the Chief Electoral Officer and his team also visited some of the polling stations within the constituency, including the model polling station, special polling station, remote polling station and those stations falling along the inter-state boundary with Assam.
Meanwhile, the first round of training for the polling personnel began on Thursday.
