NCP candidate demands repoll, allegations of poll malpractices rampant Six dead persons rise to vote in Saikul AC
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, February 08, 2012: Even as repolling in 34 booths in the hill districts of has been conducted following instructions from the Election Commission of India, allegations of booth capturing and proxy votings continue to pour in and with the most bizarre being the allegations that votes have been found cast against the names of eleven expired persons in Saikul Assembly Constituency in Senapati district.

“We have detected that votes were cast against eleven persons who expired in different years since 1998 in six polling stations,” the NCP candidate in Saikul Assembly Constituency, Doukhomang Haokiop alleged.

He also furnished the names and particulars of the expired persons to the media.

Manipur went to the polls on January 28 to elect 60 legislators for the 10th Assembly amid complaints of widespread malpractices indulged by suspected NSCN (IM) cadres and miscreants in five hill districts prompting the ECI to order repoll in 34 booths on February 4. Legislator Doukhomang Khongsai, alleged that massive poll malpractices like booth rigging and proxy votings took place in six polling stations allegedly engineered by his rival Congress candidate Yamthong Haokip by using cadres of some Kuki militant groups which are signatories of the ongoing Suspension of Operation (Soo) with the Government.

A sample list of dead person names who voted in 10th Assembly Election

Saikul, the strong hold of some Kuki militant outfits , which are parties to the SoO, was locked in a triangular fight.

The other is Trinamool Congress's nominee Chungkhokai Doungel.

"On the poll day I lodged a complaint against such malpractices to the presiding officer as well as returning officer but it was not entertained for reasons best known to them," Khongsai alleged today.

" I then submitted the complaints to them and copies of the same have been sent to the State Chief Electoral Officer and Election Commission of India ( ECI) on January 30 demanding repoll in the six polling stations," he said.

Asserting that booth riggings were engineered in six booths , the NCP candidate said when his supporters went to cast their votes there, the areas were controlled by Yamthong Haokip's supporters including some members of Kuki militant outfits.

" The miscreants prevented voters of all other candidates from exercising their franchise rights but allowed to repeatedly vote in favour of the Congress candidate openly as the presiding officers , polling agents and security officials virtually surrendered to the pressure and diktats of the miscreants," Khongsai said.

The unfair practice can be known vividly and easily from the photographs taken inside the polling stations, he said.

Another strange method the miscreants applied was fixing the EVM buttons of the two candidates including him by cello tapes to cease their voting operations and kept operational the button of the Congress candidate.

"This was indulged in three polling stations.

Because of the immense threats from the miscreants my polling agents' repeated complaints were not entertained," he said while urging the ECI to review the whole exercise and order repoll in the six polling stations.