Meghalaya Assembly polls: Counting of votes begins amid 3-tier security

The counting of votes in the Meghalaya Assembly elections began on Thursday across 13 counting centres across the state. According to Meghalaya Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) FR Kharkongor, three-tier security arrangements have been made, with the innermost layer guarded by the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and the second and third layers guarded by State Armed Police.

The counting centres are all monitored by CCTV and webcast. According to the CEO, there will be 383 rounds of counting, with a maximum of nine rounds for the largest assembly constituency Mawlai in East Khasi Hills District and four rounds for smaller ACs such as Dalu in West Garo Hills District.

The counting began at 8 a.m. in all 13 centres. Initially, postal ballots will be counted for the first 30 minutes, followed by polled votes in the EVM Control Units. Shillong has the most Counting Halls in the state, with one for each assembly constituency.

The West Garo Hills District Counting Centre serves 11 assembly constituencies and is the state’s second-largest counting centre. The Election Commission has deployed 27 Counting Observers, with over 500 micro observers assisting them at each table.

A counting Observer assists four counting assistants at each table. There were seven polling stations where mock poll data was not deleted.

There is one in East Jaintia Hills, one in West Khasi Hills, one in Rambhai AC, two in East Garo Hills, Songsak AC, two in South West Garo Hills, Salmanpara ACs, and one in Mylliem AC. District Electoral Officers (DEOs) and Returning Officers (ROs) in the above polling stations have been directed to strictly follow Election Commission protocols on counting.

In addition, following the counting of EVMs, five polling stations will be chosen at random via a lotteries, and manual counting of five randomly selected EVMs will be carried out in accordance with ECI protocols. Furthermore, concerned DEOs have issued necessary orders regarding traffic arrangements and victory processions post-counting in their respective districts.

Meghalaya Chief Minister and National People’s Party (NPP) chief Conrad Sangma met Assam Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma in Guwahati on Tuesday night, ahead of the counting of votes for Meghalaya assembly elections. Sarma, in particular, is the convenor of the North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA).

According to an NPP source, both Chief Ministers attended a crucial meeting in a hotel in Guwahati that lasted half an hour. Following the meeting, the Chief Minister of Meghalaya returned to Tura in the West Garo Hills. Earlier on Tuesday, Meghalaya CM hinted at forming a post-poll alliance to form the government.

Exit polls published by various media outlets predicted a hung house in the northeastern state, with Sangma’s NPP emerging as the single-largest party. Conrad Sangma then stated that he would keep all options open in order to form a stable government.

“We will keep all our options open to form a stable government. We are happy to see the trend is in line as we expected to get more seats than we received last time,” said Sangma.

On Monday, Meghalaya had a voting percentage of more than 76%. The state’s 59 Assembly constituencies were represented by 3,419 polling stations.

Meghalaya has 60 Assembly constituencies, 36 of which are in the Khasi, Jaintia Hills region, and 24 in the Garo Hills region. However, polling for the Sohiong Assembly constituency was postponed following the demise of the state’s former Home Minister and United Democratic Party (UDP) candidate from the seat HDR Lyngdoh.