Winners of Meghalaya State polls won by an average of 41% of total votes polled

9 candidates in the recently held Meghalaya Assembly elections won with 50 per cent and above of the total votes polled says a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms.

The voter's turnout for the Meghalaya Assembly election 2023 was 86.54 per cent.

In 2018 the turn out was at 86.78 per cent, a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Meghalaya Election Watch said.

For the report, the vote share for the 59 constituencies were analysed. Data for vote share for Sohiong (ST) constituency was not available at the time of creation of this report, an ADR release said.

Vote share of winners:

The winners of the Meghalaya State Assembly elections, 2023 won by an average of 41 per cent of total votes polled. In the 2018 elections winners won by an average of 37 per cent of total votes polled.

• 9 (15 per cent) winners won with 50 per cent and above of the total votes polled in their constituency.
• 50 (85 per cent) winners won with less than 50 per cent of the total votes polled in their constituency.
• 2 (67 per cent) out of 3 winners with declared criminal cases have won with a vote share of 40 per cent and above.
• 7(16 per cent) out of 45 crorepati winners have won with a vote share of 50 per cent and above.

Representativeness of Winners:

All the winners of the Meghalaya State Assembly Elections, 2023 won with an average of 35 per cent of the total registered voters. This implies that the winners represent on an average, 35 per cent of the total electorate. In the Meghalaya State Assembly Elections, 2018 also won by an average of 32 per cent of the total registered votes.

Among the major parties, out of 26 winners of NPP, 21 (81 per cent) have won less than 40 per cent of votes of the total registered voters in the constituency. 5(100 per cent) out of 5 winners from INC, 6 (55 per cent) out of 11 winners from UDP, 3 (75 per cent) out of 4 winners from Voice of the People Party, 2(40 per cent) out of 5 winners from AITC, 2 (100 per cent) out of 2 winners from PDF, 1 (50 per cent) out of 2 winners from BJP and 2(100 per cent) Independent winners have won with less than 40 per cent of votes of the total registered voters in the constituency.

Margin of Victory

• 12 winners have won with a margin of victory of less than 500 votes.
• 4 winners have won with more than 20% margin of victory.
• Winners with Declared Criminal Cases and their Margin of Victory:
• All 3 winners with declared criminal cases have won against a runner up with a clean background.
• Among these 3 winners, 1 winner has won with more than 10% margin of victory.
• Thomas A. Sangma (NPP) from North Tura (ST) Constituency won with 14.45% margin of victory.

Crorepati Winners and their Margin of Victory:

• 10 out of 45 crorepati winners have won against a non-crorepati runners up.
• Among these 10 winners, 5 winners have won with more than 10 % margin of victory.
• Among tese, Marthon J Sangma (NPP) from Mendipathar (ST) constituency won with 15.34 per cent margin of victory.

Performance of Women Winners:

• Among the 59 winners, 3 are women.
• Among these 3 women winners, 1 woman winner has won with 10 per cent margin of victory.
• Among the women winners, Miani D. Shira (AITC) from Ampati (ST) Constituency has won with the highest vote share, i.e. 45 per cent in her constituency and 8 per cent margin of victory.

Performance of Re-elected Winners:

Out of total 34 re-elected winners, none have won with less than 20 per cent of vote share in their respective constituencies. 4(12 per cent) have won with more than 50 per cent of vote share.

15(44 per cent) re-elected winners have won with less than 10 per cent margin of victory whereas 1 has won with more than 30 per cent margin of victory.

NOTA:

The NOTA button instated by the ECI in 2013 gave the voters an option of rejecting all the candidates in their constituency. Out of 18, 55,531 votes polled In Meghalaya Assembly, 2023, 14,842 (0.80 per cent) were polled for NOTA.