Preparations for bypolls begin

SHILLONG, Sep 29: A day after the announcement of the by-polls to three vacant Assembly seats in Meghalaya, the State Election department has set the ball rolling for the smooth and peaceful conduct of the elections.
The Chief Electoral Officer, FR Kharkongor on Thursday reviewed the preparations via video conference with the Deputy Commissioners and district election machinery of the East Khasi Hills and West Garo Hills districts.
Police and Health officials attended the meeting on various aspects  of polling such as manpower, the requirement of central paramilitary forces, COVID-19 measures, the status of polling stations and EVMs.
According to the ECI’s instructions, all polling personnel and election officials engaged in election duty should be fully vaccinated. All candidates, election agents, polling agents, counting agents and others who come in contact with the public or election official must also be fully vaccinated.
Mawryngkneng constituency has 36,742 voters who will exercise their franchise in 54 polling stations. In Mawphlang, there will be 50 polling stations for 33,181 voters. Rajabala has 41 polling stations for 32,733 voters.
Kharkongor said no polling station would have more than 1,200 voters as part of COVID-19 protocols and auxiliary polling stations have been created for centres with more electors.
Mawryngkneng will thus have six auxiliary polling stations while Rajabala will have 17.
He also said every polling station will have a nodal health worker who will supervise COVID-19 protocols and each district will have a nodal health officer to supervise the COVID-19 protocols.
The by-polls have been necessitated following the death of two Congress legislators, David Nongrum (Mawryngkneng) and Azad Zaman (Rajabala) and an associate member of UDP, Syntar Klas Sunn (Mawphlang).
The last date for filing nomination is October 8, the date for scrutiny is October 11 and the date of withdrawal of nomination is October 13. Polling will take place on October 30 while counting of votes will be held on November 2.