Aizawl: Around 32.68 per cent voters cast their votes in the first four hours of polling on Tuesday as the Mizoram Assembly elections are underway in all the 40 constituencies of the hill state under heavy security cover, officials said.
According to the election officials in Aizawl, there has been no reports of any untoward incidents so far from any of the 11 districts.
“Due to malfunctioning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) in a few polling stations initially caused some delay in balloting. The officials immediately replaced the EVMs and voting resumed,” an election official said.
Chief Minister Zoramthanga could not cast his vote in his first attempt due to the snag in the EVM in the Ramhlun Venglai Primary School polling station in the Aizawl North II constituency and returned home.
However, Zoramthanga, also the President of the state’s ruling Mizo National Front (MNF), cast his vote later and told the media that he is confident that MNF will again form the government in the hill state for a second consecutive term.
The 79-year-old militant leader turned veteran politician is seeking re-election from the Aizawl East-1 seat for a record seventh time.
Mizoram Governor Hari Babu Kambhampati voted in the Venghlui government primary school polling station under Aizawl South-1 constituency.
With favourable weather conditions, men and women wearing traditional attires in large numbers queued up in front of polling stations before the voting began at 7 a.m.
Polling will continue in 1,276 polling stations across the mountainous state till 4 p.m. without any break.
Of the 1,276 polling stations, 95 are all women managed and 11 by differently-abled personnel.
The Election Commission also set up 40 model polling stations in 11 districts with all basic facilities.
In all 8,57,063 voters, including 4,39,026 females, will decide the electoral fate of 174 candidates, including 16 women.
MNF, the state’s main opposition Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) and Congress have fielded candidates in 40 seats each while the Aam Aadmi Party is contesting four seats and 27 independent candidates are also in the fray.
The BJP has fielded candidates in 23 seats with a special focus on linguistic minority inhabited areas, especially where the Reang and Chakma tribal communities are in reasonable numbers in the voters’ list.
Additional Chief Electoral Officer, H. Lianzela, told IANS that 4,832 polling personnel have been engaged to conduct the balloting in 1,276 voting centres across 11 districts.
A senior police officer said that security has been tightened across the state, specially along international borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Mizoram shares a 510-km porous border with Myanmar and a 318-km border with Bangladesh.
At least 3,000 Mizoram Police personnel and 5,400 personnel of the Central Armed Police Forces have been deployed for the polls, the official said.
(IANS)
