Sweden, Italy and Argentina to vote in Meghalaya Assembly Polls

By: Arindam Banerjee

NEW DELHI: Sweden, Italy, Argentina, Indonesia and Cameroon will exercise their voting rights in the upcoming

assembly elections

in Meghalaya.


These are not the names of the countries, but voters residing in the Umni-Tomar village under Shola constituency located in the southern part of the

Khasi Hills

in the state. They will be first-time voters in the assembly election scheduled to take place on February 27.

It is part of a local tradition to give English names to children, often based on names of foreign places.

"The names of most of the residents of

Khasi

Hills are quite strange. The locals though not well conversant with the English language prefers to name their children after foreign lands across the globe. This custom has been followed through generations," a local election official Mr. Premier Singh explained.

In the community, people have been unconventionally named after cities, days of the week and even after Indian state and cities.

The list, which included uncommon names like Good, Bad, Ugly, Sunday and Saturday, and also Tripura and Goa, came as a surprise to the Election Commission officers as well.

To verify the lists of voters bearing these strange names, representatives of the Commission were summoned from Delhi.

All the voters bearing strange names were investigated and were found to be authentic voters, holding Aadhaar and voter ID cards.

Read story in Bengali