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Thursday, Mar 06, 2008
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85 per cent vote in Nagaland

Sushanta Talukdar

Polling peaceful; stray incidents of damage to EVMs, booth capturing

— PHOTO: RITU RAJ KONWAR

Taking no chances: A jawan keeping vigil as voters queue up to exercise their franchise at the Forest Clooney polling booth in Dimapur, Nagaland on Wednesday.

GUWAHATI: About 85 per cent of over 13 lakh voters exercised their franchise in Nagaland, which went to poll on Wednesday under President’s Rule to elect a new 60-member House.

Polling was by and large peaceful barring some stray incidents of miscreants damaging electronic voting machines (EVMs) and complaints of booth capturing lodged by some candidates.

Z. Angami, Officer on Special Duty at the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Nagaland, told The Hindu over phone from Kohima that the polling figures of Zunheboto district were still awaited and the final figure of polling in the State would be arrived at after getting inputs from the district.

Mr. Angami said that polling teams could not reach 14 polling booths in Zunheboto district due to some transport problem. The Election Commission has sought a detail report from the Deputy Commissioner, whose report was still awaited. He said that polling would take place in these booths after the Commission fixed the schedule following receipt of the DC’s report.

There were reports of miscreants damaging EVM in five places of Wokha and Phek districts. The weather was chilly in most places due to heavy rain on Tuesday night and rainfall on Wednesday morning but the weather cleared in the afternoon, he added.

Mr. Angami said that complaints of booth capturing had been lodged in some places. “The Commission is looking into these complaints,” he said.

Reports of grenade blast

There were also reports of a grenade blast near a polling booth at Singrijan in Dimapur. However, there was no report of any casualty. Security forces apprehended six underground activists from Diphupar area of Dimapur town.

There was great enthusiasm among all sections of voters in Dimapur town where in most of the polling booths heavy rush could be seen. In some polling booths, the voters were standing in queue before dawn and waiting patiently for the doors of the booths to open at 7 a.m.

Among others, Wednesday’s poll will decide the fate of two former Chief ministers Neiphiu Rio of Nagaland People’s Front (NPF) and K.L. Chisi of the Congress, and Leader of Opposition I. Imkong. Altogether, 218 candidates, including four women candidates, are in the fray.

Counting on Saturday

The counting of votes will be taken up on Saturday.

The Congress has put up candidates in all the 60 seats while the NPF has fielded candidates in 56 seats, its ally in the previous Democratic Alliance of Nagaland government —the Bharatiya Janata Party in 23, the Janata Dal(United) in three and a new ally, Nationalist Congress Party, in 12.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Lok Janashakti Party have also fielded candidates in the State.

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