Bypoll results by noon tomorrow

SHILLONG: The results of the Shella bye-election are likely to be out by 11.30 am- 12 noon on Thursday.
The counting of the votes will take place at the Sub Divisional Office at Sohra.
Chief Electoral Officer FR Kharkongor informed that there will be six rounds of counting starting from 8 am, and the entire exercise will take around three hours.
Informing that counting supervisors and assistants have been trained, Kharkongor, who reviewed the counting arrangements on Tuesday, added that there will be a VVPAT counting booth in the hall.
After the process of machine counting, the officials will select five VVPATs at random and would tally the paper slips with the machine counting.
As for security, the counting hall would have a three-tier security. The first will be managed by CAPF, second by the state armed police and the third by unarmed police.
The strong room is also being guarded by the CAPF 24×7.
The Shella bypoll, which was necessitated following the demise of sitting MLA and Speaker of the Assembly Donkupar Roy, witnessed 84.56 per cent voter turnout on Monday.
There are six candidates in the fray – Balajiedkupar Synrem of UDP, Joshua Warjri of BJP, Mosjo Rockfeller Wanswett of PDF, Batyngshain Laitmon Ryngnga of Congress and the two Independents, Grace Mary Kharpuri and Komen Laitmon.
Earlier on Tuesday, during the review meeting with the officials at Sohra, the chief electoral officer instructed them to ensure smooth counting of votes.
The bypoll was conducted peacefully on Monday and a VVPAT machine was replaced at Laitiam polling station after its malfunctioning was reported.