Kohima Bureau
Kohima, Mar. 6 (EMN): The Naga People’s Front (NPF) has gone to court to register objection to the election result of 6th Tening assembly constituency seat in Peren district.
This was disclosed by outgoing chief minister TR Zeliang on Tue. while addressing a press conference.Zeliang said the Naga people have elected 27 NPF legislators. When pointed out that the number for NPF was reduced to 26 after recounting in Tening assembly constituency (AC), Zeliang stated NPF still has 27 elected legislators and only the Election Commission of India (ECI) can decide the matter.
The result in stated constituency was reversed by the Returning Officer (RO) after a recounting was necessitated. NR Zeliang (NPF) was declared the winner initially, but ‘clerical error’ in the tabulation was said to have been detected and a review was conducted. The ECI later directed to cancel the declaration of wrong result issued in favour of NR Zeliang due to ‘wrong tabulation’. On reviewing the tabulation, rival NDPP candidate Namri Nchang was found to have polled 168 votes more than the NPF candidate and the former was declared the winner.
“They declared NR Zeliang as elected member and they handed over the election certificate to him, and it was also placed in the website also- that means the RO should not entertain any kind of complaints after giving away the election certificate. I don’t know on what ground they have recounted the votes and found loopholes,” Zeliang said. He stated that what happened was “totally wrong” as per the RPA. He said any complaint after declaration of election should be taken to court in the form of election petition. “RO reopening and recounting after issuing the certificate is totally wrong,” he added.
The NPF, he said, has now taken the matter to court against the RO and until the court gives a verdict, the party will count its elected members as 27. Officially, the ECI figure says NPF number is 26.
