The Election Commission‘s assessments indicate that nearly 40% polling stations in Nagaland are ‘critical’ while 22% polling stations in Tripura and nearly 34% in Meghalaya are ‘vulnerable’ to intimidation. The three north eastern states will go to polls in February.

Identification of both ‘vulnerable’ and ‘critical’ polling stations is considered key to ensuring incident-free and fair elections in any state.

‘Critical’ polling stations in EC parlance refers to areas with high political stakes in terms of vote share and margins of victory in the previous elections, where polling was more than 90% and where more than 75% of the votes have been recorded in favour of one candidate in the last election.

These also include polling stations which have reported electoral violence or malpractices in the last election.

‘Vulnerability’, in the context of elections, refers to the “susceptibility of any voter or section of voters” to being “wrongfully prevented from or influenced upon in relation to the exercise of his right to vote” in a free and fair manner, through “intimidation or use of undue influence or force” of any kind on them.

In Tripura, where a tight political contest is expected amid the Left-Congress tie-up, 402 polling stations have been designated critical and 782 have been termed vulnerable. The maximum critical polling stations are in West Garo Hills at 220 while East Khasi Hills are home to the highest number of vulnerable polling stations at 122.

The West Garo hills recently saw the Trinamool and ruling NPP workers clash and sustain injuries. Large amounts of cash seizures were also intercepted by the ECI in East Khasi hills.In Meghalaya, the poll panel will be keenly watching the 250 critical polling stations this time, as against 67 in the 2018 polls. The number of vulnerable polling stations in the state is at 1,128 while 127 stations are termed both critical and vulnerable, doubling up from the 60 such stations of 2018.

Nagaland has seen an increase in the number of vulnerable polling stations at 680 of the total 2,315 polling stations while the number of critical stations has come down from 1,100 in 2018 to 924 in 2023.

The EC machinery maps such polling stations in advance to check the menace of money, muscle power and the danger of intimidation of voters, especially from the weaker sections of society in the elections. The idea is to create enough safety mechanisms at these polling stations to ensure that everybody is allowed to cast their vote without fear or threat. These polling stations are identified by the local administration and police under EC norms and are under the close watch of the poll panel.

The EC has a well laid-out drill to enable a free and fearless environment for voting in vulnerable and critical areas.