Meghalaya to have pink booths in the upcoming Assembly elections scheduled next year. The state will have at least 60 “pink booths” one each in 60 Assembly constituencies.
These pink booths or polling booths would be managed only by women staffs which include presiding officers, polling officers, micro observers and security personnel.
Chief election commissioner, Achal Kumar Joti told reporters here on Saturday that each constituency will have one pink booth comprising of all women team for conducting the elections.
He said that this exercise was also carried out in the just concluded Assembly polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
There are 3,082 polling booths in Meghalaya, and of the 17.68 lakh voters registered till September 27, there are around 8.93 lakh women voters in the state that constitute 50.52 per cent of the total electorates.
Meghalaya is likely to have 18 lakh voters when the final electoral roll is published on January 10.
Joti along with two election commissioners, Om Prakash Rawat and Sunil Arora concluded their visit to state on Saturday after reviewing poll preparedness of the state.
They also met representatives of various political parties as well as deputy commissioners and superintendents of police and other state government officials.
Various political parties had raised doubts over the authenticity of electronic voting machines and demanded that votes recorded in EVMs and slips generated by Voter Verifiable Paper Trails (VVPATs) should tally and should be counted in all polling stations.
Joti however claimed that the introduction of VVPAT would ensure holding of transparent elections.
The Election Commission would count the votes recorded in EVM and slips generated by VVPAT only from one polling station from each constituency.