In order to encourage women voters for the general elections 2019, Authorities in Meghayala has decided to set-up at least 60 pink polling stations that will be especially set-up for the women voters in the state.
Speaking to news agency ANI, Meghalaya Chief Electoral Officer FR Kharkongor said we have the plan to set up more than one women booth in a particular assembly segment, There will be many assemblies which wave have more than on pink booth for women.
He added that in 2014 General elections 67 such polling booths were set up, however, till now, we have finalized to set up at least 60 such booths to encourage women.
Shillong: Meghalaya to have at least 60 all-women polling booths during #LokSabhaElections2019 . Chief electoral officer FR Kharkongor says, "There's always been high enrollment&turnout of women in state, 52% voters are women. We had 67 pink booths last yr, at least 60 this time" pic.twitter.com/vPmuUYuJOE
— ANI (@ANI) April 3, 2019
Further commenting on the turnout, the CEO said the women turnout in the state has always been very high. There are 18.52 lakh voters in the state and out of which 52% are women. To Encourage women to use their franchise we have taken a call to at least set-up one ‘Pink Booth’ in every polling station.
Earlier, on the similar lines, in a run-up to the Mizoram State Polls last year, the authorities had set up around 40 polling booths in the state that were managed by all-women polling officials and security personnel.
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These ‘pink polling stations’ were set up for women voters only, are locally known as ‘Dingdi’ in Mizoram– a wildflower, which is found in abundance in the state and is commonly used in Mizo poetry to depict beautiful women.
Meghalaya has two parliamentary seats – Shillong and Tura. Both the seats will go to polls in the first round of polling on April 11.
Lok Sabha Polls are slated for April-May this year that would spread on Seven Phases starting from April 11 to May 19.
Counting of Votes and Results for the mega Battle of ballots will be announced on May 23 four days after the 7th phase of voting.
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