VVPATs deployed in all Polling Stations in Nagaland; 1 Divyang Polling Station manned by only Persons with Disabilities; 178 All-Women-Managed Polling Stations Created Women Voters Outnumber Men In the Meghalaya Electoral List; 67 All-Women-Polling Stations Created; 63 Model Polling Stations Created. First five voters in each PS were awarded Early Voter Medals by CEO in Meghalaya.

Polling was held today for General Elections to Legislative Assembly of Meghalaya & Nagaland.  Voters in Nagaland and Meghalaya came out in large numbers to exercise their franchise. 75% polling was reported by 4pm in Nagaland and 67% in Meghalaya. At number of Polling Stations, voters were still in queue, hence percentage is expected to increase after the closure of poll in all the polling stations.

In 59 Assembly Constituencies (ACs) of Meghalaya polling was conducted in all 3025 polling stations. In one AC 43-Williamnagar (ST), the polling has been adjourned because of death of one NCP candidate on 18^thFebruary 2018. Likewise, In Nagaland, Polling was held at 59 Assembly Constituencies (AC) across 2156 Polling Stations, with candidate at 1 AC getting elected unopposed. The day largely passed off peacefully with minor sporadic incidents.

Scrutiny of the polling will be taken up on 28^th February 2018. Counting will be taken up on 3^rd March 2018.

Other noteworthy Data for Nagaland includes:

• Nagaland faces some difficult geographical challenges.  For 103 Polling Stations, Parties had to be dispatched two days before the poll, i.e. on 25^th Feb and many of them had to walk several hours to reach their Polling Stations. Due to heavy rains yesterday several polling parties had to abandon their vehicles and travel several km, and as a result more than 100 polling parties reached the polling stations after 11pm last night.
• ECI appointed 26 General Observers, 22 Expenditure Observers, 11 Police Observers for supervision of various activities of poll process; Total 432 Micro Observers were deployed.
• Web casting was done at 533 locations. All other PS were covered with videography.

New initiatives taken by the CEO, Nagaland include – VVPATs deployed in all Polling Stations; 1 Divyang PS (manned by only PwDs) in PS No.15 Wokha Town under 38 A/C Wokha in Wokha District; 178 All-Women-Managed Polling Station

• 530 vulnerable hamlets were identified as vulnerable and confidence building measures were taken in all vulnerable hamlets.
• Decentralising the functions of ROs by Appointing 55 Officers as RO for the first time, which was highly appreciated by the political parties. Earlier 12 DEOs used to also act as ROs at Nagaland forcing the political parties and candidates to visit DEO’s offices at District HQ for all permissions/meetings.
• IVRS based Poll Day data collection system which facilitated timely collection of data on key indicators.

Other noteworthy Data for Meghalaya Elections 2018 includes:

1. Altogether 18,09,818 electors with 9,13,683 female and 8,96,135 male electors are registered in the 59 ACs. This is one of the few States where women outnumber men in the electoral list.
2. First five voters in each PS were awarded EARLY VOTER MEDALS.
3. 67 all women polling stations were created.
4. 63 model polling stations were created.
5. The State has almost 4.5% electors in 18-19 years age group indicating high enthusiasm amongst the youth.
6. As the terrain in Meghalaya is hilly and a number of locations fall in shadow areas, the communication is challenging. However, the Commission used multipronged approach to reach out to most of the polling stations on real time basis. Reports from all polling stations were received during the day.
7. More than 22 thousand civilian employees were put on polling duty.
8. Altogether 52 senior civil servants from other States have been deployed on Observer duty.
9. More than 1.20 crore rupees were seized by our expenditure monitoring teams; More than 25,000 litre of liquors were also seized by our teams.