With the biennial election to the Rajya Sabha from Meghalaya scheduled next month, the State Election machinery on Friday held an extensive meeting with representatives of political parties to brief them on the entire electoral process, statutory compliances and voting procedures ahead of the June 18 poll.
Chief Electoral Officer of Meghalaya, Dr. B. D. R. Tiwari, convened the meeting at the Main Secretariat in Shillong, where officials gave detailed presentations on the election schedule, nomination procedures, open ballot voting system, method of voting, counting process and legal requirements to be followed by candidates and political parties. The interaction assumes significance as the tenure of the sitting Rajya Sabha member is set to end on June 21, making the conduct of elections mandatory before June 20 under the schedule prescribed by the Election Commission of India.
“As the present tenure of Rajya Sabha MP is going to end by 21st June, the election have to be held by lastest by the 20th June. So as per schedule prescribed by the Election Commission of India the notification of this vacancy for the conduct of the Rajya Sabha election will be on 01st June, 2026 (Monday), Last date of making nominations is 08th June, 2026 (Monday), Scrutiny of nominations 09th June, 2026 (Tuesday). Last date for withdrawal of candidatures is 11th June, 2026 (Thursday), Date of Poll is 18th June, 2026 (Thursday), Hours of Poll will be from 09:00 AM to 04:00 PM on 18th June, 2026 (Thursday) and counting of votes will be at 05:00 PM onwards,” Tiwari said.
He said election authorities had already inspected the polling venue along with officials of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly and found all arrangements satisfactory as per Election Commission norms and prescribed layouts.
“Accordingly we have briefed the details process to the political parties. Morning we had a visit of the venue along with the officials from Meghalaya Legislative Assembly and the venue and all has already been visited and found satisfaction as per the norms, schedule, layout etc being provided by the ECI. We briefed the entire process to the political parties, regarding filing of nomination papers, including submission of Form 2C, affidavits in Form 26, security deposit, oath or affirmation, and Forms AA & BB in the case of party candidates, including provisions related with form C1 to C8,” he said.
Election officials also highlighted mandatory provisions concerning the publicity of criminal antecedents by candidates and political parties, in line with directions issued by the Supreme Court and instructions of the Election Commission of India. Political parties were briefed on the system of election under proportional representation through single transferable vote and the open ballot voting process under the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
Tiwari said, “So, these are the mandatory things, the voter list is also being prepared by the assembly. So special emphasis we have laid down on the provision related to the publicity of the criminal antecedents by the candidate and political parties in compliance with the direction of Supreme Court and instruction is by ECI.”
“The system of election under the proportional representation by mean of single transferable vote and the procedure of open ballot voting under the representation of People Act 1951, is also been briefed to the political parties. And they were informed that the member belonging to political party are required to show their marked valid paper only to the authorized agent of their own political party and not to any other party agent on the day of poll. Independent MLAs are prohibited from showing their ballot paper to any agent,” he added.
Representatives of various political parties attended the meeting and interacted with election officials on several aspects related to the conduct of the Rajya Sabha election.
“So we had a good interaction and all the queries related to the election of the Rajya Sabha already been briefed,” Tiwari said.
Meghalaya CEO Convenes Meeting With Political Party Representatives Ahead of Rajya Sabha Poll
