Meghalaya to webcast February 27 polls

In a first, Meghalaya will webcast the balloting in the February 27 assembly elections in nearly 200 polling booths across the state to ensure fair and free elections.

State Chief Electoral Officer Frederick Roy Kharkongor said that the webcasting would be done in 193 polling booths in eleven districts.

"We have identified 193 polling stations which will have direct webcasting to be visible at the Chief Electoral Officer or District Electoral Officer and the Election Commission of India," Kharkongor told journalists.

Noting that the objective was to ensure fair and free elections, Kharkongor said: "This is another layer of monitoring and poll supervision to see whether poll officials are doing their work and voters are allowed to exercise their franchise in a free, fair and transparent manner."

Kharkongor said 60 pink polling booths -- one each in all the 60 constituencies -- would be set up to empower women and increase their participation in the poll process.

"These 60 all-women polling stations will be manned by women polling officers keeping in mind that we are a state which is always been very gender sensitive," he said.

There are 3,082 polling booths in Meghalaya, and of the 18.30 lakh voters registered, the number of women voters is 9.23 lakh.

Although, no one from the third gender has come forward to register in the revised electoral rolls, Kharkongor said that 86,890 first-timers between the age of 18 and 19, were registered in these rolls. Besides, 2,174 people with disabilities were registered in the final rolls.

He said there are 133 millennial voters in Meghalaya.

--IANS

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