Chief Election Commissioner A.K. Joti on Saturday said the Election Commission was happy with the poll preparedness in Meghalaya where Assembly elections are due in 2018.
Concluding a two-day review of the State election machinery here, he said the exercise was necessary because the election was a multi-dimensional process and it involved many other departments and affected all citizens and voters. “We are happy to learn that the preparedness of the State was of a good nature,” he haid.
Mr. Joti and the Election Commissioners, Sunil Arora and Om Prakash Rawat, concluded their review after meeting Chief Secretary Y. Tsering and Director-General of Police S.B. Singh.
Elections are due in Meghalaya early next year as the tenure of the ninth Assembly ends on March 6.
Pink booths
As of December 19, over 18 lakh voters have registered with the Election Commission, Mr. Joti said, adding that about 50.52% (8.93 lakh) are women voters.
The Election Commission said it was setting up “pink booths” — managed by all-woman teams — in the State, as it did in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh to ensure increased women participation in the election process. Such booths will be set up in all the 60 constituencies.
On the security front, Mr. Joti said the EC had asked the Home department and the SPs to monitor inter-State borders, and the BSF to monitor the India-Bangladesh border to check smuggling of arms.
