Over 19 lakh voters ready to exercise franchise for LS polls, Selsella by poll

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaApril 10, 2019

SHILLONG: Over 19.14 lakh voters are all set to exercise their franchise for Lok Sabha elections to the Shillong and Tura parliamentary seats to be held along with the bye election to Selsella Assembly constituency on Thursday. Polling will start from 7 am to 4 pm.

Of the total 19,14,795 electorate, Shillong parliamentary constituency is having 11,95,662 voters and Tura parliamentary constituency is with 7,15,707 voters. There are 9,65,174 are female voters and 9,49,621 are male voters. Among these, over 80,000 are first time voters.

“We are expecting for a peaceful conduct of elections but our only challenge is the weather which we have no control over,” State’s chief electoral officer Fredrick Roy Kharkongor told reporters here on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls.

Over 12,600 polling officials have been deployed for the conduct of polls in 3167 polling stations spread across the eleven districts under the two seats, while 300 for the bye election to the Selsella Assembly seat which is having 50 polling stations.

The Shillong constituency which comprised of 36 Assembly segments, has a total of 2,053 polling stations, while the Tura Parliamentary constituency, which covers 24 Assembly constituencies has a total of 1,114 polling stations.

Kharkongor said the election paraphernalia however are prepared for the weather adding the returning officers and district election officers have been asked to provide tarpaulins in each polling station.

Of 4686 voters who are persons with disabilities, over 800 visually impaired will for the first time cast their vote using the special Braille ballot papers which will be made available in every polling booth to ensure inclusive elections.

Stating that security have been tightened, the CEO informed 40 companies of Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) have been deployed in the state besides 9,000 from the state police and 1700 plus from home guards to ensure free and fair conduct of elections.

“In all vulnerable and critical polling stations, we are trying to have either CCTV or video camera or at least a micro observer,” he said.

As per the latest vulnerability mapping, a total of 417 have been identified as vulnerable polling stations while 107 as critical polling stations. There are 22 expenditure sensitive constituencies.

According to Kharkongor, 5 general observers, 4 expenditure observers and 1 police observer have been appointed.