Assembly elections 2023: 60 polling stations in Meghalaya to be managed by young staff; key highlights

The Election Commission of India on Wednesday (January 18) announced the schedule for Assembly elections to the three states of Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland. All the constituencies of Tripura will vote in a single phase on February 16. Meghalaya and Nagaland will vote on February 27.

For this year's Assembly elections in Tripura, the Election Commission has published the final electoral rolls with 28,13,478 voters–a net increase of 2.4 lakh since the 2018 polls.

Also read: EC announces schedule for Tripura, Meghalaya, Nagaland elections; Details here

On Friday, Chief Electoral Officer Kiran Dinkarrao Gitte said that the final rolls were published on Thursday after the summary revision that started on November 9 last year ended.

As many as 14,14,576 voters are men and 13,98,825 are women, while there are a record 77 transgender voters. The number of first-time voters is 65,044 and 34,704 of them are men, 30,328 women and 12 transgender people. The number of 80-plus voters is 38,039 while 679 voters are over 100 years old.

Also read: 'Left with no other option': Jammu and Kashmir's Congress spokesperson resigns 

Apart from the four northeast states - Tripura, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana will be going ahead for elections for the year 2023. The winner's tenurity shall continue for the next 5 years.

Here are the key highlights from ECI's press conference:

• The term of Legislative Assemblies of three states - Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura are due to expire on March 12, March 15 and March 22, 2023 respectively.
• Despite difficult terrains, these 3 states have set an example for the rest of the country in terms of Participation.
• For an enhanced voter experience and to encourage PwD and Women, there will be some polling stations managed completely by PwDs and women staff.
• For the upcoming assembly elections in 3 states, as many as 9125 polling stations will be set up across 180 Assembly Constituencies. Over 80% polling stations in rural areas.
• To inspire young voters, in Meghalaya 60 polling stations will be managed by the youngest available staff.
• We have polling stations in remote, isolated places and near international borders.
• In Tripura, the polling stations are set up for families residing near the international border and for scattered islands in Dumbur Lake, where BLO has to travel by boat.
• Meghalaya has 74 non-motorable polling stations. Two riverine PS accessible by boat only. Nongriat PS in East Khasi Hills is accessible only on foot thru world famous Double Decker.
• The ECI's Suvidha Portal (http://suvidha.eci.gov.in) will provide online nomination and affidavit facility to candidates/political parties. Permissions for rallies, meetings, etc. can also be applied online through this portal.
• The ECI directed enforcement agencies to be impartial and transparent in their functioning ensuring a level playing field.

• ECI
• Election Commission of India
• Meghalaya
• Nagaland
• Tripura