Amid tight security, 67% voter turnout in Meghalaya, 75% in Nagaland

New Delhi, February 27: Two states of North East, Nagaland and Meghalaya witnessed a huge spree of polling for Legislative Assembly that took place today. Voters came out in large numbers to exercise their franchise. 75% polling was reported by 4pm in Nagaland and 67% in Meghalaya. At number of Polling Stations, voters were still in queue, hence percentage is expected to increase after the closure of poll in all the polling stations.

 

Chandra Bhushan Kumar, deputy election commissioner said that in Meghalaya, 67% voting was recorded. Large number of polling stations is still in queue and so we are expecting this number to rise. In Meghalaya, women electorate outnumbered men.

Sudeep Jain, deputy election commissioner said, “In Nagaland, till now the figures that have been received, 75% voting has taken place as of 4 pm but this figure is likely to go up.”

However it is seen that Nagaland faces some geographical difficulties. Intending on the 103 Polling Stations parties had to dispatch two days before in order to reach their polling stations. Due to heavy rains, several polling parties had to abandon their vehicles and travel a lot. Polling in Nagaland saw “sporadic incidences” including the EVMs in two polling stations were damaged.

As the terrain, Meghalaya is hilly and a number of locations fall in shadow areas, the communication is challenging. However, the Commission used multipronged approach to reach out to most of the polling stations on real time basis. To monitor the polling more than 22 thousand civilian employees were put on polling duty. 67 all women polling stations were created. There were 63 model polling stations. The State has almost 4.5% electors in 18-19 years age group indicating high enthusiasm amongst the youth.

To encourage more voter participation, “early voter medals” were given out for the first five voters in each polling station of Meghalaya. Counting for all three states that is Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland will be done on 3 March and begins at 8 am. The terms of the assemblies in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura end on 6, 13 and 14 March, respectively. All the three states have 60 assembly constituencies each.