Meghalaya Assembly Election 2018: 377 out of 443 candidates cleared after scrutiny of papers

Shillong: The nomination papers of 377 candidates have been cleared after scrutiny for the 27 February Assembly elections in Meghalaya, chief electoral officer F R Kharkongor said on Thursday. The scrutiny of nomination papers of a total of 443 candidates who filed their papers for the elections was held on Thursday at the respective offices of Returning Officers, in which 377 candidates were found eligible till 7 pm, Kharkongor told PTI. [caption id=“attachment_4332033” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AP[/caption] Of these, 344 were male candidates and 33 female candidates contesting for the 60 seats. The last day for withdrawal of nomination papers has been fixed on 12 February while polling will be held on February 27 and the counting will be done on 3 March. The term of the current Assembly ends on 6 March. Three candidates whose applications were rejected in the Garo Hills region were of the North East India Development Party (NEIDP) and the Aam Admi Party after they failed to mandatory produce required number of proposers and seconders. NEIDP candidate Arelitha K Sangma from Selsella was rejected as she failed to produce ten proposers for her candidature. Rajabala candidate of the AAP Milson Sangma also was rejected on similar grounds. The number of proposers is mandatory for contesting from a non recognized party, elections officials said. The NEIDP and the AAP are not recognised parties in Meghalaya. Both Arelitha and Milson were able to introduce only a single proposer for their names losing out on contesting from their respective seats. In South West Garo Hills district, NEIDP candidate Serazul H Kharkongor’s papers was also rejected for failing to produce his election expenses. Kharkongor had contested the 2013 elections from the Tikrikilla in West Garo Hills. This time he had wanted to test his grit against the chief minister Mukul Sangma’s wife Dikkanchi D Shira.