Posers over No Repoll stand : Footnote or experiment ?
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: February 25, 2012 -

The decision of the Election Commission of India not to hold another round of repoll in the State may have been driven by many factors, but one thing is for sure and that is the vote counting will proceed as scheduled on March 6.

The reasons have not been officially spelt out as of now, but one point that has been subtly hinted in the report carried by The Sangai Express in its February 24 edition and which could be one of the defining reasons is the shortage of security personnel needed for area domina- tion, especially in the hill areas.

Another major factor could be the confusing scenario created by the candidates, their agents and workers and the political parties which they represent. While complaints of malpractices poured in from several candidates and their agents, all the political parties, including the Congress had indicated their stand against going in for another round of repoll.

This contradictory stand, vis-a-vis the candidates and the political parties which they represented in the election would have surely sent the men at the State Election Office as well as the Election Commission of India on a tail spin.

This was interesting and confusing as well and if we may add it went a long way in adding the extra dose of pizzazz to the election, which was deemed to be dull in comparison with past elections, thanks to the stringent election code of conduct enforced by the Election Commission of India.

The question of the second spell of repoll centred around the rampant discrepancies detected during the photo comparison exercise and while the Imphal based newspapers had a field day in shocking and amusing the readers with the mischief that was played by way of proxy voting and impersonation, it has not added up to much by way of rectifying the gross errors that were detected.

Instead it only succeeded in adding that extra bit of edge to a thriller or gave a more cutting edge shape to the suspense associated with elections.

So no second round of repoll it is going to be and while it remains to be seen how this will actually go down with the candidates and the political parties, questions will remain whether the stringent implementation of the election code of conduct was merely a hype.

Make no mistake about it, pictures do not lie and when cases as blatant as a man voting against the name of a woman or a young man voting against the name of an aged man, when reports of the dead rising to cast their votes made headline stories, what more evidences are needed to say that the just held election came nowhere near what one would call a free and fair election.

Perhaps a fresh definition of the term ‘free and fair election’ is in line. If shortage of security personnel for area domination or to sanitise the places where repoll are to be held is going to be an issue, what does it say about the exercise of electing the people's representatives in the largest democracy in the world ?

We are not in any way even remotely suggesting that repoll should have been announced, but what we are concerned is the seeming lack of willingness to take the issue by the horn and demonstrate that nonsense will not be tolerated.

Or is it a case of the election in Manipur being the ground to test the water of photo-comparison exercise for future reference or is it a case of the election here being just a footnote to the elections held in four other States ?

The No Repoll decision needs an explanation or else there is no reason why the people will not come under the impression that all the stringent election code of conduct was nothing but playing to the gallery.