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IMPHAL — No major incident of violence has taken place in Manipur since the announcement of the Lok Sabha polls by the Election Commission on March 16, and it is expected that voting in the state's two parliamentary seats will be smooth and peaceful, Chief Electoral Officer Pradeep Kumar Jha said on Thursday.
The CEO said that to hold the Lok Sabha election in Inner Manipur and Outer Manipur parliamentary constituencies, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has provided 162 companies (around 14,600 personnel) of central armed police forces (CAPF).
"The security situations are being reviewed on a regular basis. The CAPF personnel, along with thousands of state forces, are dealing with the law and order situation besides conducting area domination and confidence-building measures," Jha told IANS.
The Inner Manipur Lok Sabha seat would go to polls in the first phase on April 19 and the voting in the Outer Manipur seat, reserved for the tribals, would be held in two phases - on April 19 and April 26.
The CEO also said that over 24,500 eligible voters, now sheltered in over 300 relief camps due to ethnic violence in Manipur, would exercise their franchise at 94 special polling stations in the two-phase elections for the state's two Lok Sabha seats, as directed by the Election Commission.
The 94 special polling stations will be set up in the relief camps in 10 of the state’s 16 districts and many of the displaced voters would cast their votes in their original places of residence, he said.
The full Election Commission, chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar in its meeting in New Delhi last week, reviewed the law and order situation of various states including Manipur ahead of the 7-phase Lok Sabha elections beginning from April 19.
A six-member Election Commission team, led by Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Dharmendra Sharma, recently visited the state and conducted a thorough review of election preparedness.
Ethnic violence between Meitei and Kuki-Zomi communities broke out in Manipur on May 3 last year, in the wake of a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ organised in the hill districts to protest the Meiteis' demand for Scheduled Tribe status, leaving over 220 people from both communities dead and over 2,000 injured.
A huge number of private and government properties were damaged in the violence, and over 70,000 people, including women and children, of both communities were displaced from their homes and villages and took shelter in safer places in the state and outside, including neighbouring Mizoram.