The Aftermath
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: January 30, 2012 -

The much awaited election to the 10th Manipur Legislative Assembly finally got over with quite a good number of eligible voters turning out to cast their votes.

The high percentage of voting, which is roughly put at around 80% is a sign that people still have faith in the democratic process of elections to choose their representatives.

But a closer look informs us that the picture is not so rosy.

More of that later.

Almost all the districts of the state recorded polling percentage in the lower 80s save for Chandel district which recorded the maximum polling percentage at 91% and Tamenlong which had the lowest percentage of 69%.

The voting itself took much longer with the polling officers and personnel taking their own sweet time in going through the process which included taking photographs of each voter inside the polling booth.

This led to extended voting much beyond the scheduled closure of 3 pm to around 7 pm in some booths.

The ECI should look into ways of speeding up the whole process so that it doesn’t stretch to such an extent in future polling.

The polling in the valley districts went off relatively peacefully, there wasn’t any untoward incident.

Going by the non stop bomb attacks on Congress workers by CorCom in the run up to the election, there were apprehensions of violence but fortunately, no bomb went off on this day.

In contrast, the hill districts saw many cases of snatching and vandalizing of EVMs, voters and workers of various candidates were threatened in many polling stations.

In one of the most violent poll related incident in the state till date, seven persons which included three polling personnel, one CRPF jawans, two voters and one suspected NSCN-IM cadres were killed in a shoot out at a polling station in Chakpikarong.

The fact that three heavily armed persons could get so close to this particular polling booth (41/40 Chakpikarong) undetected points to serious security lapses.

This has happened despite Home Ministry report of possible interference by NSCN-IM cadres in the election and consequent instructions to deal with it.

Though the CRPF personnel reacted and returned fire, a shoot out in a polling booth is bound to leave fatal casualties.

The level of violence in this election, especially in the hill districts is certainly a matter of concern, which could set off a dangerous trend for future elections.

Another very worrying trend in this election to the 10th Manipur State Legislative Assembly is the huge amount of money spent by candidates of all hues in buying votes.

Just when we were appreciating the absence of ostensible show of money power as manifested in huge cut outs of political leaders, poster, banners, less of wining and dining, a drastic decrease in the number of public rallies and meeting, hardly any leelas and musical shows sponsored by candidates unlike in previous election, incidents in the final few days before the election negated all these gains.

In the last two or three days before the election, in every locality, there was only talk of which candidate is paying how much.

All the steps taken up by the ECI to curb the role of money power which seemed to be succeeding came undone.

And of course, it is a sad reflection of the rot inflicting our society.

There is no point in blaming political parties and leaders alone.

Once again, a large chunk of electorates of the state bargained away their right of adult franchise.

In such a scenario, will the voters have the moral right to criticize the elected representatives if they do not deliver on their promises?