Our Correspondent
Kohima, July 17 (EMN): Nagaland recorded 100% polling in the Presidential Election 2017 held today at the state Assembly Secretariat with all the 59 members of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) having exercised their franchise. The MPs of each House of the Parliament, Neiphiu Rio and KG Kenye have also casted their votes in Delhi, it was informed.
In the state’s 60-seat House, the NPF has 47 MLAs, BJP has 4 and there are 8 Independent. One seat was recently vacated, for which, the current chief minister Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsu who is not an elected member, would be contesting a by-election at the end of this month with the intent to fill the vacant seat.
Former chief minister TR Zeliang who is currently leading a dissident group with 43 MLAs siding with him, disputing Liezietsu’s chief ministership, also arrived with his group to cast his vote. The voting process, which started at 10 this morning, got over by 12 noon.
The value of vote for each Nagaland MLA is 9 and for each MP is 708 and with a cent percent voting today, the total value of votes casted stands at 1,947.
CM harassed in Assembly complex; NLA apologises
In what could be termed as a lapse in protocol, Chief Minister Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsu, though not an elected member and has no voting right in the presidential election, made a courtesy visit to the Assembly Secretariat during the day only to find the chief minister’s entrance and his office chamber locked.
Apparently, the chief minister was made to wait for about 15 minutes at the gate, which is particularly designated for him while his entourage frantically made calls to all the who’s-who of the NLA regarding the locked gate.
The chief minister reportedly decided not to wait anymore and took the public entrance into the Assembly complex, only to find his office chamber locked up as well.
It was also learnt that when Liezietsu went around the complex and was crossing the polling booth, he was pulled by the shoulder by an official of the NLA restricting him from passing the area. This was followed by confusion and a harsh reaction from one of the CM’s officials who accompanied him.
“It was rather unruly so I also turned back and questioned him,” chief minister Liezietsu told reporters later. While informing that the NLA Speaker had apologized to him, the chief minister blamed the commissioner & secretary NLA for the gaffe saying that the CMO had already intimated the Assembly Secretariat on Sunday that the chief minister would be paying a courtesy visit during the presidential election.
The chief minister said he was not informed of the security arrangements or the programme of polling. He said there were reports in the newspapers about the usage of a special pen for voting but there had been no instructions from the Assembly. Clearly unhappy about the appointment of recently sacked Home minister Y Patton, who is now in Zeliang’s group, as the election agent, Liezietsu maintained that should the Assembly require an election agent, it should have consulted the government. “But without informing, they have appointed one MLA from the dissident group,” he pointed.
“We cannot run an Assembly in this manner. Assembly is supposed to be above party politics,” Liezietsu asserted, while adding, it was unfortunate, but it had happened.
Meanwhile, talking to Eastern Mirror, commissioner & secretary NLA Benjamin Newmai admitted there appeared to have been some misunderstanding among some of his staff while carrying out an inspection of the complex with the Central (election) observer before the election commenced. He said his office received information about the chief minister’s visit to the Assembly and accordingly, he had intimated the same to the CEO and the central observer. After the election officials gave the ‘go ahead’, the commissioner & secretary is said to have instructed his staff to keep the chief minister’s entrance and chamber open. He said when he reached the Assembly Secretariat early this morning, the entrance and door to the chief minister’s office were open, however it was believed that when the central observer told some of the staff to close unused entries, the latter misunderstood and went ahead to lock all including the chief minister’s entrance and office.
According to Newmai, whatever reasons, the staff should have confirmed before acting.
“We are very sorry,” he remorsefully said.
Being the head of the office, he said he should take the responsibility to this unfortunate incident. He also informed that he and his office will be writing officially to the chief minister and tender apology.
