By-poll to 7 tribal autonomous district council seats peaceful

Voting ended peacefully in the by-poll to seven tribal autonomous district council seats spread across three states in Meghalaya today, with about 60 per cent of the over 1.5 lakh voters exercising their franchise.
"Voting ended peacefully and there was no untoward incident during the voting which started at 7 am," a senior district council affairs department official told PTI.
The fate of the 33 candidates in the fray will be decided on December 16.
The main Opposition party, the regional United Democratic Party and the BJP contested in all the seven seats while the ruling Congress contested in only six seats.

The seats fell vacant after seven out of eight legislators resigned from the membership into the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council and the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council, following the passing of a legislation preventing them from holding two elected posts.
The Prevention of Disqualification (Members of Legislative Assembly of Meghalaya) (Amendment) Act, 2015 seeks to end holding of dual posts by the MLAs.