Shillong, Sept 28: With the announcement of the scheduled date for bypolls in the state by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday, Meghalaya Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Fredrick R Kharkongor has laid out the guidelines for the bypolls.

Nomination

-During the Pre and Post nomination process, the public meeting is prohibited and with only three vehicles and within the periphery of 100 meters from the RO Office.

Campaign period

Campaign period a special provisions for both indoor and outdoor.

Indoor:
– 30% of the allowed capacity or 200 people whichever is less

Outdoor:
-50% of the allowed capacity or 1000 people in case of star campaigners and 50% of the capacity or 500 people in case of non star campaigners.  The area will be guarded by the police. The entire area will be cordoned off and will be guarded by the police. The count of people entering the ground will be monitored. Expenditure for the cordoning/barricading will be borne by the candidate/party.

Number of Star Campaigners restricted to 20 for these bye-elections for National /State recognized parties and 10 for un-recognized registered parties in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Roadshow:
No Roadshow shall be allowed and no motor/bike/cycle rallies to be allowed.

Street corner meeting:  Maximum 50 persons shall be allowed (subject to availability of space and compliance to COVID-19 guidelines.)

Door to door campaign:
Door to door campaign with 5 persons including candidates/their representatives.

Campaign through video van:
Not more than 50 audiences shall be allowed in one cluster point subject to availability of space and compliance to covid guidelines.

Use of vehicles for campaign:
Total vehicles allowed for a candidate/political party (excluding Star Campaigner): 20
Maximum number of persons allowed per vehicle 50% of the capacity.

The silence period is 72 hours before the end of poll.

Poll day activities

1. Maximum 2 vehicles with 3 persons each shall be allowed. Security as per the applicable extant guidelines.
2.  Poll day activity on polling station as per ECI guidelines.

Counting day

DEOs to take appropriate measures to prevent crowding. Social distancing and other COVID safety protocols to be strictly adhered to at all the times during counting.

Social distancing and use of mask, sanitizers, thermal scanning, face shield, hand gloves, etc., as per COVID-19 protocol, have to be complied with.

If a candidate or political party violates any of the above guidelines, no more permission shall be given to the concerned candidate/party for rallies, meetings etc. If any star campaigner violates the COVID protocols, he shall not be allowed to campaign further in that constituency/district.

All polling personnel and election officials including the private persons engaged in the election duty shall be double vaccinated before taking their services.

Candidate/election agent/polling agent counting agent/driver etc. whoever is coming in contact with the public or election officials have to be double vaccinated.

One health worker to be appointed as COVID nodal officer for each Polling Station.

CS/DG shall take enough preventive measures and make necessary arrangements to ensure that no poll related violence occurs during pre and post poll.