Our Correspondent
Kohima, Sep. 29 (EMN): Bye-elections to the Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) seats of Pungro-Kiphire and Southern Angami-I would be held on November 3, the additional chief electoral officer of Nagaland, N Moa Aier, announced in Kohima on Tuesday.
The two seats have been left vacant with the passing away of former NLA Speaker Vikho-o Yhoshü (14-Southern Angami-I assembly constituency) on December 31, 2019; and NPF legislator T Torechu (60-Pungro-Kiphire assembly constituency) on December 16, 2019.
Addressing a press conference after the Election Commission of India (ECI) had announced the schedule earlier in the day, Aier said that the model code of conduct (MCC) came into force with immediate effect (September 29) in the districts of Kohima and Kiphire where the whole or any part of the assembly constituency going for bye-election is included.
However, it is subject to partial modification if the constituency is included in state capital/metropolitan cities/municipal corporations, then the instructions would be applicable in the area of constituency only.
In all other cases, the MCC would be enforced in the entire districts covering the constituency going for bye-elections. It will be applicable to all candidates, political parties, and the state government concerned. The MCC will also be applicable to the union government for the district concerned, he said.
In view of the Covid-19 pandemic, broad guidelines for conduct of general elections/bye-elections will be followed during the polls. A nodal health officer has been appointed for the state as well as for the districts to oversee Covid-related arrangements and ensure preventive measures during the entire electoral process.
Some general guidelines to be followed during election process include wearing of face mask; thermal scanning of all persons; sanitiser, soap and water to be made available; social distancing to be maintained; and gloves to be made available for voters, he informed.
As for 60-Pungro-Kiphire assembly constituency, the total number of voters is 29,346 (as per the final published E-Roll, 2020); with 15369 male and 13977 female and 99 service voters.
There are 58 polling stations under the constituency.
The 14-Southern Angami-I assembly constituency has 13,541 electors in total; with 6320 male, 7221 female voters and 52 service voters.
For the first time, the service voting facility will be open for the senior citizens aged 80 and above, Aier informed.
Earlier in the day, the ECI had announced the schedule for bye-elections to fill one parliamentary constituency of Bihar and 56 assembly constituencies in legislative assemblies of various states across the country.
States where elections will be held include Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Odisha, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh.
As per the ECI, the poll events were scheduled thus:
Date of issue of gazette notification - October 9 (Friday)
Last date of nomination – October 16 (Friday)
Date for scrutiny of nominations – October 17 (Saturday)
Last date for withdrawal of candidatures– October 19 (Monday)
Date of poll — November 3
Date of counting — November 10 (Tuesday) Date before which election shall be completed – November 12 (Thursday).