Moirang by-poll peaceful: 85.18% voting recorded, women voters higher than men
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Moirang, December 27 2008: THE BY-ELECTION of Moirang assembly constituency in Bishnupur district today saw polling of around 85.18%.The polling was by and large peaceful without any untoward incident reported from anywhere except a few minor incidents of heated arguments at one or two polling stations.

The voting began from 7 am except for Ward No.27/29, Trongloubi Government Model Primary School , Kwakta which started at 8:30 a.m.due to some technical problem of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) and ended at 4 p.m. Voting in all the 37 sensitive polling booths of the assembly constituency went on smoothly.

However, a tense situation developed at 27/7 Thamnapokpi polling booth around 1.35 pm following an alleged report of manipulation of voting by one presiding officer assigned there.

Voters standing in a queue outside a polling booth in Moirang AC to cast their votes

The turn out of women voters was higher than the men in today's polling.

In fact, the number of women voters is more than that of men.

Out of a total of 32,369 voters of Moirang AC, the number of female electorate is 17,083 and male electorate is 15,286 .

More girl voters were seen moving towards their respective polling booths around 3 pm.

Many polling booths including 27/6 Thamnapokpi Primary School saw a polling record of 401 out of the 636 voters.

Earlier around 10 O'clock in the morning, out of 2,585 voters in the area covered by the polling booth at Moirang Mutipurpose Higher Secondary School, 895 voters cast their votes.

Similarly, 441 voters cast their votes out of 1144 voters at Phairembam Government LP school, 595 out of 1344 at Siribol Thana LP school and 300 out of 835 at Kwakta Youth Association polling booths.

"We've a mixed voting pattern here as our youths want to have a change while the elders want return of Congress candidate," Haobijam Tombi Devi (40) of Moirang Lamkhai told this reporter after casting her vote along with her grandmother.

The by-election of Moirang AC was necessitated by the untimely demise of the sitting MLA Mairembam Manindra.

As a result, late MLA's 31 year-old son, M Prithviraj of Congress and Hemam Bira, son of another former minister H Nilamani, of Manipur People's Party are vying for the seat.

Contradicting the opinion of Haobijam Tombi Devi, a 65 year-old vegetable vendor, Phairembam Kumbi Devi of Thana Leikai said, "the chance should be given to MPP candidate, Bira as he is old.

The young one (Congress candidate) may have more chances in future, she felt.

However, the Muslim electorate of Kwakta village, who undoubtedly are the deciding voters, expressed a different view that the senior citizens want the Congress to return as their representative.

"Even if we vote for MPP, he would be in opposition for the remaining three years, so most of us here prefer to have a ruling man as our representative," Md Rafiuddin (50) of Kwakta, Ward No.7 said.

Regarding security arrangements, both male and female electorates were seen frisked by unarmed state security personnel in presence of armed personnel of 43 sections of BSF and CRPF deployed before entering their respective polling booths across the assembly segment under the supervision of DIG M Shantikumar and Bishnupur district SP Jayentakumar.

In the last election of 9th Manipur Legislative Assembly, the Congress candidate M Manindra won the seat by securing a total of 9,340 votes while Md Hesamuddin of NCP polled 5,908 votes.

Talking to the media about the voters' turn-out of the day, Mr.Bono, election officer of Manipur informed that the turnout was huge with over 80 percent casted their votes.

However, he stated that the exact number of voters turn-out percent could not be ascertained at the moment as the reports of the voting from all the polling sites have to be collected and sent to Imphal.

There are 32,369 voters in the Moirang Assembly Constituency.

As for the counting, it would start from December 30 at the Bishnupur Mini Secretariat.

Earlier during the day, the two candidates, M.Prithiviraj of the Congress and H Bira of the MPP also cast their votes in their respective wards.

While Bira cast his vote at the Moirang Lamkhai Multipurpose Higher Secondary School, ward No.27/15, M.Prithiviraj castd his vote at the Sama Girls High School, Moirang Konjengbam ward No.27/11 .

However, the election was also marked by some controversies with voters accusing the presiding officer of the by-election for misguiding the 'ignorant public could were new to the EVM' to press serial No.1 which was of the Congress candidate.

Disclosing of this incident to the media, a lady by the name of Moiranthem Ibemcha asserted that she had come to vote for the MPP candidate but due to the misguidance of the presiding officer, she had casted her vote for the Congress candidate.

Accusing the officer of misguiding the officer, the incident led to an argument following which the voting at the Thamnapokpi ward No.27/7, Government Primary School , where the incident occurred, had to be put on halt from 1:00 p.m.to 2:40 p.m.The site was also visited by both the candidates.

Talking to the media, Mr Jayanta, Superintendent of Bishnupur district police claimed that there was no untoward incident reported from any of the 37 polling stations.

Informing further on the security, the SP stated one platoon of paramilitary force was deployed for the duty at the home polling stations of the candidates.

Besides this, 30 (thirty) of the polling stations were guarded by the BSF while the remaining was guarded by the CRPF, informed the SP.

However, one interesting feature of the day was that M.Prithiviraj, the Congress candidate was refused entry at the Kwakta Bazaar polling station, ward No.27/36 due to heavy security.