Meghalaya: 119 CAPF Companies to be Deployed for Smooth Conduct of Polls

In order to ensure the smooth conduct of the assembly polls in Meghalaya, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has deployed 119 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) in the state.

The chief electoral officer of Meghalaya, FR Kharkongor said that 40 companies had been deployed earlier and another 79 companies have been inducted after the Tripura polls.

FR Kharkongor said, “In terms of law and order, we have 119 companies in Meghalaya. We had 40 companies which had been deployed earlier and another 79 companies have been inducted after the Tripura polls.”

“In terms of law and order, it is very smooth. Unfortunately, one candidate of the Sohiong constituency passed away. We have already sent the information and recommendation for adjustment of the poll to the election commission. So in all likelihood, the election will be held in 59 out of 60 constituencies," the CEO of Meghalaya added.

Kharkongor further said that there are 60 assembly constituencies in Meghalaya with two regions including 36 constituencies in Khasi, Jaintia Hills region and 24 constituencies in Garo Hills region.

The chief electoral officer said, “We have 3,482 polling stations in the state. All preparations are on track and all the 12 districts' election teams have prepared all the actions and all preparations are in full swing. We have some very minor issues in Garo hills where there was a group clash between two parties at Phulbari in the West Garo hills district, but that was sorted out. We have already arrested 31 people. A few incidents happened in Shillong and the situation is also under control. By and large, election preparedness is going on smoothly," he said.

Also Read: Meghalaya: Polling in Sohiong Constituency Postponed After Lyngdoh’s Demise

The Chief Electoral Officer said that all counting arrangements are in place.

"We have 13 counting centres here in our state, 12 counting centres in the district headquarters and one in Sohra civil sub-division," he said.

Further, the official detailed the arrangements for the polling and the steps taken to boost voter participation in the upcoming Assembly polls.

"We have some unique polling stations, two are riverine polling stations. There are some interesting polling stations in Meghalaya. We have launched Mission 300 where five polling stations in each constituency have been identified, where the voter turnout is less than the state average. Last time in 2018, the state average was 86.90 per cent," he said.

The CEO hoped that the voting percentage will be as high as 90 per cent or above.

"We are also using music in campaigns, awareness programmes to aware the voters, because the people of Meghalaya love music and music is a part of the DNA of people here," he said.

He said that there are about 81,000 first-time voters in the state.

"As a measure to encourage early voting, we have five early voters’ medals and will give to early five voters in every polling station. We have 240 special polling stations - 120 will be all managed women polling stations, 60 will be model polling stations and 60 will be the PWD polling stations," the CEO added.

The total number of voters in the state is 21,75,236 and out of them 10.99 lakh voters are female voters and 10.68 lakh voters are male voters.

The Meghalaya Assembly polls will be held on February 27 and the counting will be done on March 2 along with Tripura and Nagaland.

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