The electoral office of the State while treating several polling booths of Silli as well as Gomia as hyper sensitive and sensitive would deploy the Central forces on the day of voting. Also, arrangements for Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) would be made for all the polling stations.
Chief Electoral Officer of the State l Khiyangte informing about the arrangements being done for the twin bye elections scheduled to take place on May 28 assured about all the preparations completing well in time.
“After holding meetings with local administration we have identified several booths of Silli and Gomia Assembly constituencies as hyper sensitive and sensitive in nature. Along with State police personnel we would be seeking deployment of the Central forces to conduct free and fair election. We have placed demand before the Election Commission about this,” said the State’s CEO on Friday adding about poll timing which is going to be from 7 am to 3 pm.
He also informed that all the polling booths would be provided with VVPAT-enabled electronic voter machines (EVMs) for the satisfaction of the voters as well as polling agents of different political parties.
“100 per cent booths would be equipped with VVPAT fitted EVMs where the voters after casting their votes can see from himself his polled vote. The paper trail can be verified later by the polling agents while counting. Some random polling stations would be taken up to match and verify the EVM data with the paper trail. This would remove doubt of any kind from anyone’s mind,” said Khiyangte.
As per the schedule declared for the bye poll over Silli and Gomia— taking place due to mid-term disqualification of Amit Mahto and Yogendra Prasad from the Assembly because of their conviction in criminal cases—nominations can be filed till May 10 and after scrutiny on May 11, the names can be taken back by May 14. Counting of votes is to take place on May 31.