Election dept will ensure free, fair bypoll: CEO
SHILLONG, Oct 15: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday set the stage for a high-voltage bye-election to the Gambegre Assembly seat which has been scheduled on November 13.
The NPP has fielded Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma’s wife, Mehtab Chandee while the TMC has fielded Zenith Sangma’s wife and GHADC MDC, Sadhiarani Sangma for the bypoll. The Congress and the BJP are yet to finalise their respective candidates, although the names of Jingjang M Marak, a close aide of former MLA Saleng Sangma (Congress) and GHADC MDC, Bernard N Marak (BJP) are doing the rounds.
The bypoll was necessitated following the resignation of Saleng A Sangma after his election as Lok Sabha member from the Tura parliamentary seat.
The date of issuing of gazette notification for the bypoll has been fixed on October 18 while the last date for filing nominations has been set as October 25. Scrutiny of nominations will take place on October 28 while the last date for withdrawal of candidatures is October 30.
Counting of votes will take place on November 23.
The bye-elections will be held in 48 Assembly and two Parliamentary constituencies across 15 states.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) BDR Tiwari said 32,157 voters, including 16,333 males and 15,824 females, are eligible to vote in the bye-election. There are 100 persons with disabilities, 64 senior citizens and three service voters in the constituency.
Polling will be held across 51 polling stations, 31 of which are critical. There are no vulnerable polling stations in Gambegre, Tiwari said.
The CEO made it clear that the Election department will ensure a free and fair bye-election and all security measures are already in place to prevent any unwanted incident during the bypoll.
When asked about the availability of the EVMs for the bypoll, he said there are 110 Ballot Unit (BU), 110 numbers of Control Unit (CU) and 110 numbers of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT).
“We have more than 200% EVMs which is sufficient,” the CEO added.
The election machinery will be keeping a close watch on any misuse of government machinery during the bypoll since the model code of conduct has come into force.
“We will do everything as per the mandate of the Election Commission of India,” Tiwari said.
Pointed out that there has been a series of allegations against the NPP by the opposition and even the BJP against the misuse of government machinery in Gambegre, Tiwari said, “Once the model code of conduct comes into effect, we look into all activities and the needful measures will be ensured.”
Asked about deployment of security personnel in Gambegre constituency, he said the details will be provided later.
Earlier, the State Congress had accused the ruling NPP of using government machinery to its advantage even before the schedule for the Gambegre bypoll was yet to be announced.
Despite the NPP denying allegations of exploiting state machinery for electoral gains in Gambegre, its partner, BJP, also sided with the Congress and accused its ally of providing benefits only to those who pledged support to the party, while excluding families who did not.