SHILLONG/TURA: After a long wait of 42 days since votes were cast for Meghalaya’s two parliamentary seats — Shillong and Tura — in the first phase, the fate of nine candidates in the fray will be known on Thursday when votes are counted.
The counting will begin at 8 am.
Chief Electoral Officer Frederick Kharkongor said on Wednesday that all arrangements have been made for the smooth counting of votes in all the 13 counting centres in the state.
He added that due to the counting of VVPAT slips, the results may be known around 4 pm.
The announcement of the final results are expected to be delayed due to new guidelines given by the Election Commission, on the orders of the Supreme Court, that have made it mandatory for the random selection of five VVPATs from each Assembly constituency to be counted after the last round of counting.
Over 500 persons have been deployed for counting of votes.
There are six candidates for the Shillong Lok Sabha seat and three for Tura.
In Selsella Assembly by-poll, which was necessitated by the death of sitting congress MLA Clement Marak, there are four candidates in the fray.
Out of over 19.14 lakh electorate in the state under both Shillong and Tura, 12,81,164 persons had voted to elect their representatives.
The election department has informed that the trends and the results will be disseminated through the portal: https://results.eci.gov.in starting from 8 am.
The six candidates for Shillong seat are two-time sitting MP Vincent H Pala (Congress), former MLA Jemino Mawthoh (UDP), who is also a common candidate of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance, sitting legislator Sanbor Shullai (BJP) and Independents Romeo Phira Rani, THS Bonney and Samuel Hashah.
In Tura, two-time MP and NPP candidate Agatha K Sangma is confident of being third-time lucky while the Congress’s former chief minister and Songsak MLA Mukul Sangma hopes to throw a spanner in the NPP celebratory mood by snatching the prestigious seat from the family of late P A Sangma and make history by breaking the jinx which has prevented so many others from winning in the past.
But the dark horse in the parliamentary contest — BJP’s Rikman G Momin — believes the ‘good’ work done by the NDA government under Narendra Modi will help his candidature to sail through.
Simultaneous counting for Selsella
Counting in Garo Hills will not only be for the parliamentary seat but also for the Selsella Assembly by-poll where four are in the fray. The widow of Congress legislator Clement Marak is pitted against the NPP, the BJP and the UDP.
Congress candidate June Eliana R Marak is facing a tough contest with Ferline C A Sangma of the NPP. Interestingly, both the women candidates are former government officials. While June Eliana was an official of the Agriculture department, Ferline is a former Meghalaya Civil Service Officer.
UDP’s Sayeedullah Nongrum, a political warhorse, is not new to the electoral battle. He has been an MLA from nearby Rajabala constituency more than once and knows the poll game.
On the other hand, the BJP’s Adorsho Sangma is a farmer-cum- businessman who has joined politics for the first time.
In the five districts of Garo Hills, full preparations are in place for Thursday’s counting of votes for the Tura Parliamentary seat and the Selsella Assembly by-poll.
The chief electoral officer said the Electronically Transferred Postal Ballots (ETPB) under Shillong and Tura and also the postal ballots for the Selsella by- election will be manually counted in addition to the counting of votes in EVMs.
The JN Sports Complex, Shillong will have 15 counting halls for the counting of votes. In addition, one counting hall has been allotted at the Sports Complex for ETBPS.
One each counting centre will be there in all the 11 districts of the state and two counting centres will be there in Sohra and Mairang.
All the ETPB for the parliamentary election across the five Garo Hills districts will be taken up for counting at the table of the Returning Officer, Ram Singh, in the counting centre at the SMELC building in Tura.
Simultaneously, the postal ballots for Selsella will also be taken up for counting in the table of the Selsella Returning Officer, Mary T Sangma, around the same time.
It is only after the final round of counting gets over that five VVPATs of random polling stations from each of the 24 constituencies will be checked before the final results are declared.
Counting of votes for the Tura Lok Sabha seat will be held simultaneously at counting centres in Tura, Williamnagar, Baghmara, Resubelpara and Ampati and the final results will be announced in Tura.
