Campaigning for Lok Sabha by-election comes to a close

Our Correspondent
Kohima, May 26 (EMN): The official period of campaigning for the Lok Sabha by-election in Nagaland ended Saturday evening. The state will witness a straight contest between the People’s Democratic Alliance (PDA) candidate Tokheho Yepthomi of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and C Apok Jamir of the Naga People’s Front (NPF) on May 28.
The ruling PDA consisting of the NDPP, Bharatiya Janata Party, Janata Dal (united), the Nationalist People’s Party and an independent, and the opposition NPF have had a 10-day intensive campaigning throughout the state with exchanges of sharp gibes and retorts, along with counter complaints with the Election Commission.
Interestingly, the Congress has joined hands with long-time adversary NPF to put up a joint fight against the PDA in this election.
11,97,436 voters are enrolled to exercise their franchise at 2196 polling stations across the state. The recently concluded state assembly election had recorded 84.27% voter turnout. The Lok Sabha election in 2014 recorded 88.25% turnout. 253 polling stations will be managed by women, while two polling stations in Wokha will be managed by differently-able personnel, an update from Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Abhijit Sinha informed.
Sinha told reporters that 3196 ballot units, 3143 control units, and 3075 VVPAT (voter verifiable paper audit trail machines) were in place for use. He informed that 40 companies of the central armed police forces have been deployed in the state. They will be supplementing 80 companies of the Nagaland Armed Police and District Executive Force, 770 Home Guards and 2600 Village Guards for election duty.
The CEO appealed to the citizens of the state to cast their votes. While requesting the people to vote ethically and in an informed manner without engaging in any malpractice, he conveyed best wishes to polling personnel. The state’s election chief expressed hope for a free, fair, and peaceful election.
Scrutiny will be held on May 29 in all the 12 election districts including Pughoboto while counting of votes will be on May 31.
Law and order
With regard to law and order situation, Commissioner and Returning Officer (RO) Motsuthung Patton said the overall situation was normal except for a few minor incidents in some pockets of the state.
On issues/complaints raised by political parties during the campaigning period, he said the NDPP and BJP have objected to an alleged inflammatory speech of NPF president Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsu on May 15 at the Ura Academy hall in Kohima. “As required, we have passed on the matter to the police and the police have registered a case on May 22 and investigation is going on,” Patton said.
Another complaint was said to have been lodged by the NPF against the minister for Urban Development Metsubo Jamir for allegedly giving assurance to give monetary incentives to the sector that register maximum voting percentage. The RO said show-cause notice was issued to the minister concerned, who had later denied the allegation.
Another complaint was received from Meluri sector where a village council allegedly “decided to vote for one candidate only” and not allow other parties to vote, he said and added that precautionary measures have been taken.
‘Universities not exempt from election duty’
When asked about the issue between the Nagaland University Teachers Association (NUTA) and the Kohima district administration, Sinha said the central university teachers were not exempt from election assignments. He cited Section 159 of the Representation of the People Act 1951 which outlines the category of employees including staff who can be taken for election duty, and stated that universities (both central and state) were in that category.
Supplementing this, Patton informed that the DC of Kohima issued show cause notices to 16 teachers of NU for not attending the training for polling duty. According to latest updates from the administration, he said some of the teachers had applied for exemption from election duty and verification of their papers indicated six of them to be valid for exemption while the other 10 had reported for training.
Ladigarh likely to vote in makeshift PS again
Polling at Ladigarh under Tamlu in Longleng district, which falls in the disputed area between Nagaland and Assam, is likely to be made in a makeshift polling station similar to several past elections as it was ‘the only alternative,’ it is informed.
Patton said that the DC of Longleng had conducted a meeting to discuss the matter and the response of the people was “quite understood.” They were stated to have agreed on three resolutions: affirming that Ladigarh was ‘undeniably’ the land of the Phoms under Longleng district; that the case was sub judice; and they agreed to put the matter to the wisdom of the ECI and abide by the latter’s decision. Therefore, the RO was hopeful that no untoward incident would take place and election would be held peacefully.
Cash and liquor seized
Sinha informed that cash in the amount of INR 24000, and 1829 litres of liquor were seized by Excise personnel on duty during the campaigning period.
Meanwhile, it was learnt that two vehicles carrying polling personnel met with accidents in two separate incidents on Saturday. One was near Kuthur village in Shamator in Tuensang district and the other near Bhandari in Wokha district. Officials said that the occupants of both vehicles escaped with minor injuries.