Our Correspondent
Kohima, May 30 (EMN): Counting of votes for Nagaland's by-election for its sole Lok Sabha seat will be on Thursday from 8 am onwards. The counting will be in 13 counting centres across 12 election districts.
After the counting gets over, the overall result will be declared at the office of the commissioner, also the Returning Officer (RO) of the by-election.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) yesterday ordered re-polling for a polling station in Kubza village at 26th Aonglenden assembly of Mokokchung district after a mob allegedly damaged the ballot machine and control units during polling on May 28. Subsequently, said polling station is stated to have recorded 44.68 percent out of 640 voters exercising their franchise in the re-polling.
Interestingly, the state’s overall voter turn-out percentage for the Lok Sabha by-poll stands at an average of 86.73 (%) of the 11,97,436 electorate, against the 84.27% turn-out during the state assembly elections in February this year. The figure comes in the backdrop of concerns that the public tend to pay less attention to parliamentary elections but take assembly elections more earnestly.
Nagaland’s Lok Sabha seat fell vacant when Neiphiu Rio, who was elected as member of the Lok Sabha as a Naga People’s Front (NPF) candidate in 2014, resigned from both the party and the parliamentary seat earlier this year after he decided to return to state politics. Subsequently, Rio joined the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and was elected unopposed in the state assembly elections to become chief minister leading the People’s Democratic Alliance (PDA).
The by-poll, a straight contest between PDA nominee Tokheho Yepthomi of the NDPP, and C Apok Jamir of the Naga People's Front (NPF), is being looked upon as a trial of strength between the two sides. The coalition consists of the NDPP, Bharatiya Janata Party, Janata Dal (United), and the Nationalist People's Party and an independent. The NPF is being supported by long-time adversary Indian National Congress.
