Sharmila refrains from voting
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, January 28, 2012:
While the election fever that had been gripping the State for the past few months finally culminated with the electorates exercising their franchise rights today, anti AFSPA campaigner Irom Chanu Sharmila continued to stay away from the democratic exercise, yet again.
According to Sharmila's elder brother Irom Shinghajit, who is also the managing trustee of Just Peace Foundation, sharmila's abstention from the electoral process is a part of her ceaseless campaign against continued imposition of the draconian Act in Manipur.
Into her 11th year of fasting demanding total removal of the pro-military legislation, Sharmila views the Indian election as just another formality amid continuous atrocities committed by the security force, said the older sibling who also echoed sharmila's belief that different political organisation pledging to totally scrap the Act from Manipur would not be translated into action as including the issue in the election manifesto is merely to woo the voters.