AMTU seeks President's intervention over poll issue
Source: Hueiyen News Service / Newmai News Network
Imphal, February 28 2012:
The All Manipur Tribal Union (AMTU) has intimated the President of India for intervene in the present impasse over electioneering process in Manipur.
With the Election Commission of India (ECI) finding difficulty in deciding over the issue of proxy voting in the recently held elections to the 10th Manipur State Assembly, AMTU submitted a memorandum to the President of India requesting for giving instruction to the ECI for conducting re-polls in all the polling stations of Manipur that have been considered rigged or proxy.
"We, the undersigned, on behalf of the Manipur tribal people, have our highest tribal traditional etiquette honouring your esteem while stating the ambiguous conduct of Election Commission of India on the controversial process between electoral photo comparison with that of the polling day voters photographs and the stagnant indecisiveness for re-poll where anomalies were detected," said Romeo Bundon and Wilson Gangmei of AMTU in the memorandum.
In a memorandum faxed to the President of India today, the AMTU further said that as a matter of fact mass bogus voters through proxy voting were found in some hill polling stations in the presence of central observers while mismatching of photographs by chief electoral officer of Manipur.
"However, the statutory statement that was declared by ECI that re-poll shall be a must against such anomalies is being suppressed on the ground to save more expenditure on re-polls by some political parties of Manipur," the AMTU mentioned.
"These political parties also urged and perhaps influenced the ECI to declare such detected voters as reject vote to instantly go ahead with counting.
To reject such detected voted selectively amidst genuine votes from EVMs is technically impossible even if latest software be applied.
Again the whole detected compact EVMs must not be rejected at the cost of genuine voters containing in such EVMs which definitely will deny constitutional voting right as a citizen," the tribal body said.
According to AMTU, the factors provided by the political parties are not rationally appropriate to the democratic sanctity and its execution of franchise to Indian citizens and is frivolous as this right must not be treated as tradable commodity.
The exchequer comes under the economy which is mendable whereas voting right is not an economy but a grass root formation of governance by birth right which is not mendable economically, it added.
"Therefore, your Excellency is humbly pleaded to instruct the Election Commission of India to conduct re-poll in the anomaly-detected polling stations of hill districts of Manipur where democracy had been a mockery due to such anomalies that also has been development implications of the regions," the AMTU prayed.