Shillong, Sept 28: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday announced bye-elections to the three Assembly seats in Meghalaya on October 30.

The bye-elections are necessitated following the deaths of three sitting legislators – David A Nongrum from Mawryngkneng constituency, SK Sunn from Mawphlang constituency and Dr Azad Zaman from Rajabala constituency.

These will be held simultaneously along with 12 other Assembly constituencies in 10 states and 3 parliamentary constituencies in the country.

Informing this, State Chief Electoral Officer, FR Kharkongor said the Commission has decided to hold these bye-elections to fill the vacancies in the state.

Important  dates

The date of polling has been fixed on October 30 while date of counting is November 2.

Kharkongor informed that the date of issue of gazette notification will be on October 1 while the last date for filing nominations is October 8.

Scrutiny of nominations will be held on October 11 and the last date of withdrawal of candidatures is October 13.

The decision was taken after the Commission has reviewed the situations related to the pandemic, flood, festivals, cold conditions in certain regions, feedback from concerned states/UT and taken into consideration all facts and circumstances.

Model code of conduct comes into immediate effect

The ECI also announced that the model code of conduct will come into force with immediate effect in the district(s) in which the whole or any part of the Assembly constituency going for elections is included, subject to partial modification as issued by the Commission.