The time for withdrawal was from 11 am to 3pm but no candidate turned in the office of RO to withdraw his candidature. Later at around 4;30pm the independent candidate Chandra Prakash Manger of Phalidara approached the Returning Officer to withdraw his candidature but it was too late, said the RO, Mr. Singh.
The contesting candidates were allotted respective election symbols on the day. Binod Rai of Mickhola, who is SDF candidate will have the party symbol of Umbrella, INC candidate Youa Raj Rai of Hingdam, will contest with the symbol of Hand, Arjun Kumar Rai of Lower Tintek, Marchak, East Sikkim who is contesting from SGPP will have Battery Torch symbol while Independent candidate Namgyal Dorjee Bhutia of Rajgram Namchi was allotted symbol of Table and Chandra Prakash Manger of Phalidara was given the symbol of comb.
After the withdrawal period, RO and also the DC south, Mr. Singh held a meeting with the candidates and the officials to be engaged in the election of Namchi-Singithang Constituency. In the meeting DC south informed the candidates about the model code of conduct and informed about the preparations being made by the administration and the police to maintain law and order in the constituency as well as in the whole district.
He informed that the 1st level “randomization” of the EVMs has been already completed while the second one will be held on 6th August and the third and final ones on 8th August 2009.
The EVMs will be distributed to the different poling stations on 9th August 2009, he informed. Similarly, Sector Police Officer TD Kazi while briefing the candidates on the police preparation said that the police were frequently patrolling the area. He further said that Sikkim Armed Police will guard the strong room where the EVMs will be kept and that the policemen to be deployed in the lection duty are from outside Namchi. INC candidate Mr. Rai raised several queries which were answered by Mr. Singh.
