Fate of 10 candidates to be sealed in EVMs today
SHILLONG, April 18: With the battle lines drawn, the stage is set for Lok Sabha elections in the state’s two seats – Shillong and Tura.
The state has over 22 lakh voters and they will decide the fate of 10 candidates – six of them in Shillong and the four others in Tura. Polling will start at 7 am and continue till 4 pm.
Chief Electoral Officer BDR Tiwari on Thursday said there are 22,26,567 voters (male-10,99,517, female-11,27,047 and third gender-3). The average number of voters per polling station is 633 while the number of first-time voters is 31,247.
There are 11,720 PwD (persons with disability) voters, 10,180 voters above 85 years, five overseas voters, 341 voters above 100 years, 3,884 service voters, 84,412 voters in the age group of 18-19 years and 7,17,416 voters in the age group of 20-29 years.
According to Tiwari, there will be 326 urban polling stations, 3,186 rural polling stations, 88 all-woman managed polling stations and 10-PwD managed polling stations.
Webcasting will be conducted in 1,886 polling stations. There are 50 non-motorable polling stations.
In the Shillong constituency, 17-Nongspung in 33-Rambrai Jyrngam has the highest number of voters (1,274) while the polling stations with the lowest number of voters are Kamsing in Amlarem and Photeitsim in Ranikor. Both have 36 voters.
In the Tura constituency, Chandmari polling station has the highest number of voters (1,324) while the polling station with the lowest number of voters is Narigre in Williamnagar. It has 85 voters.
Altogether 133 polling stations will be under “mobile shadow zone”. The state has 409 vulnerable polling stations and 29 critical polling stations.
There are 36 polling stations along areas of differences between Assam and Meghalaya. Polling personnel had to go through Assam to be able to reach 128 polling stations.
The voters’ turnout in the 2019 Lok Sabha election was 71.42 per cent.
Altogether 22,26,567 Voter Information Slips (VIS) have been distributed to all electors by booth-level officers. The voters will have to carry the VIS along with EPIC on the polling day.
A total of 2,030 Accessible Voter Information Slips with braille features have also been distributed to the electors with visual impairment while voter guides have been issued to 4,59,573 households.
The home voting optional facility was offered to 21,900 eligible electors (10,180 senior citizens, 11,720 PwDs). Out of these, 4,619 (2,387 senior citizens and 2,232 PwDs) electors have voted from home.
Election Duty Certificates have been provided to government officers and staff on ‘election duty’ who will cast their vote on the EVM at the polling stations where they are deployed on the polling day. Altogether 14,048 polling personnel have been deployed to the 3,512 polling stations.