Shillong, Mar 16: The polls to the twin Lok Sabha seats-Shillong and Tura- will be held on April 19 in the first phase.
This was announced by Election Commission of India on Saturday.
The counting will be held on June 4.
The model code of conduct (MCC) has immediately come into effect.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) BDR Tiwari said that the date of issue of gazette notification will be on March 20 while the last date for nominations is March 27.
Scrutiny of nominations will be held on March 28 and the last date of withdrawal of candidatures will be on March 30.
The term of the 17th Lok Sabha will expire on June 16.
The CEO said, “Necessary action will be taken for compliance of the MCC. New works and new schemes cannot be initiated. If ongoing works are there, those can continue.”
He said defacement on property shall be removed within 24 hours and 48 hours of the announcement of the elections.
The CEO said adequate number of paramilitary forces will be deployed to ensure law and order is maintained.
He added that vulnerable and critical polling stations have also been identified and necessary action is being taken.
Tiwari said the ECI has given instructions to all central agencies to man the international border through the BSF and other parliamentary forces. “The BSF and other parliamentary forces are doing the needful and taking measures to comply with ECI instructions,” he said.
The CEO said measures have also been taken to increase the voter turnout in the upcoming LS elections as it is a challenge as voter’s turnout is quite less in the parliamentary elections when compared to the Assembly elections.
“If we compare both our parliamentary constituencies, Shillong traditionally has a lesser voting percentage compared to Tura. So we have worked out a strategy…to motivate young voters and counter the urban apathy…to ensure larger participation at different levels,” he said.
Shillong parliamentary constituency has 36 Assembly segments and Tura has 24 Assembly segments.
Meghalaya has a total of 22,17,100 electorate of which 10,94,947 are males, 11,22,150 females and 3 are from third gender.
There has been an increase of 55,971 voters in the past one year from 2023-2024.
There are 3835 service voters, 11,179 persons with disabilities (PWD) voters, 23,793 voters who are 80+ years, 10,345 voters, who are 85+ years, 5 NRI electors as per the final electoral roll published on January 5, 2024.
The state has a total of 3512 polling stations of which 326 are in urban and 3186 rural.
