84% vote in Manipur’s first-phase polls

[caption id="attachment_101347" align="alignleft" width="550"] People's Resurgence & Justice Alliance (PRAJA)'s Irom Sharmila shows her finger marked with indelible ink after casting vote at a polling station during the first phase of Assembly polls in Imphal, Manipur on Saturday.[/caption] Our Correspondent Imphal, March 4 :Manipur saw 84% votes cast in 38 constituencies in the first phase of the two-phase Manipur assembly elections on Saturday. This was announced by the state’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vivek Kumar Dewangan during a press briefing here on at 6.30 pm. But CEO Dewangan admitted that the figure was subject to change as reports from 28 percent of the polling stations were still being awaited. Officially, the voting was conducted from 7 am till 3 pm, but those who were in the queue were given tokens and voting continued till the last token holder cast their vote in some constituencies in Imphal. "Today's turn out surpass the voter turnout in the last three elections in the state because of the voters' awareness programmes which were conducted prior to the polls," said Vivek Kumar Dewangan. "In the last assembly's first phase poll total polling percentage was 71."Even a CRPF man who was on duty at 13/4 polling station at Pettigrew, Manipur's oldest school, was surprised to see the turnout of voters in Manipur elections. "The turnout is quite large here. When we're in UP (for) poll duty, we never witnessed such a turnout," he said. Besides tracking all polling stations using GIS, web streaming were done for the first time in an election using smart phone in all the polling stations where arrangement for the differently abled and senior citizens persons was very poor. However CEO Dewangan said that 1079 polling stations (out of 1643) were covered live web streaming to monitor activities while in 564 activities were recorded offline by smartphones. In the day’s polls, the ECI appointed 12 each of general observers, expenditure and police observers besides 258 micro-observers. Responding to a question, he said to have received some complaints, for re-polls, and that it will be examined. Bharatiya Janata Party, which could not win a single seat in the last assembly polls, is the only party contesting all 60 seats in Manipur while the Congress, which was in power in the outgoing assembly, is fielding 59 candidates including 37 in first phase poll. The National People's Party(NPP), Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, LokJana Sakhti, Left parties and independent candidates are also contesting in the first phase. The first phase polling, which took place at 1,643 polling stations spreading across both hills and valley areas of six districts–Imphal West, Imphal East, Bishnupur, Kangpokpi, Pherzawl and Churachandpur–will decide the fate of 168 candidates including 7 women candidates. The key candidates in the first phase poll include Th Lokeshwar, I Hemochandra, AK Mirabai, Govindas Konthoujam, Kh Ratankumar, Ngamthang Haokip, Manga Vaiphei, and Th Shyamkumar (Congress); Y Erabot, N Biren, N Mangi, O Joy, and Th Biswajit (BJP); Phungzathang Tonsing (NPP).In 2012, Indian National Congress won majority of the seats and incumbent Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh was re-elected for the post. Soon after casting her vote at Khurai constituency, Manipur’s iconic rights activist Irom Sharmila expressed that the response from youngsters is also positive. Sharmila is contesting from Thoubal constituency in the second phase polling which is scheduled to be held across 1151 polling booths spreading across 10 districts both in hills and valley, on March 8.