While there is growing opposition from political parties over the extension of the terms of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC and JHADC), Congress leader Ronnie V Lyngdoh said the delimitation exercise was fair and carried out at the right time.
Lyngdoh said delimitation will help the members of the district councils to represent the people’s votes more fairly.
“I think it’s been many years since we have had delimitation, so I think it is high time. Some constituencies have a huge number of voters while some have very few. It is the right time to balance this out so that there is not too much focus on one constituency,” said Lyngdoh.
The KHADC MDC, who is also part of the NPP-led executive committee stated, “This delimitation is highly required, and the right time for it would help the MDCs to do justice to the voters.”
Two separate extensions of six months each were granted by the state government in order for KHADC constituencies to be redrawn to reflect population chances, a process known as delimitation. The Jaintia Hills ADC’s term was similarly extended.
However, the extension has faced severe criticism from the opposition Voice of the People Party (VPP), which accused the government of misusing its power to delay the district council polls due to their fear of losing out to the VPP.
The Hill State People’s Democratic Party, a minor constituent of the ruling MDA government, was also critical of the extension in the term as it feels that the delimitation should have been carried out well before the scheduled end of the council’s term in the first half of this year.
