This Article is From Apr 11, 2014

Election 2014: Mizoram votes today

Election 2014: Mizoram votes today

Youth organisations, NGOs and women's groups in the state had enforced a 72-hour-long bandh across the state.

Aizawl: Polling for the lone Lok Sabha seat in Mizoram which is witnessing a three-cornered contest, will be held today along with the by-poll to Hrangturzo Assembly seat.

The triangular contest is among ruling Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and United Democratic Front (UDF), which is an alliance of eight opposition parties.

UDF comprises the main Opposition party Mizo National Front (MNF) and BJP besides, Zoram Nationalist Party, Mizoram People's Conference, Maraland Democratic Front, Hmar People's Conference, Paite Tribal Council and NCP.

Congress has fielded its sitting MP CL Ruala, while UDF has nominated Robert Romawia Royte. AAP has put up Michael Lalmanzuala as its candidate for the seat.

Mizoram Lok Sabha seat has 7,02,189 voters, of whom 3,55,954 are women.

There are 1,126 polling stations of which 385, mainly in the urban areas, would use the VVPAT system.

Security arrangements have been made for the conduct of free and fair polls with the deployment of additional eight companies of central para-military forces apart from six state armed battalions and unarmed policemen.

International borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh and inter-state borders have been sealed, official sources said.

The polling was originally scheduled for April 9 but the Election Commission postponed it to April 11 after Mizoram-based civil society bodies called a 72-hour bandh in the state from April 7 in protest against its move to allow Bru refugees to vote in Tripura.

The organisations had demanded that the Election Commission should allow the refugees to cast their vote in Mizoram, which was turned down. The Bru voters, who are in camps in Tripura after being thrown out of Mizoram following ethnic violence with the Mizos in 1997, exercised their franchise through postal ballot from April 1 to April 3.
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