Presidential Polls in state peaceful
Pranab Mukherjee will get votes of all 60 MLAs: Okram Ibobi
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, July 19 2012: Even as elected representatives of Manipur exercise their franchise to elect the 13th President of the country during the voting conducted at the Committee Room of State Legislative Assembly here today, an upbeat Chief Minister Okram Ibobi has expressed certainty over all the 60 MLAs giving their votes in favour of Pranab Mukherjee, UPA-sponsored candidate.

The total number of value vote for Manipur in the Presidential polls is 3,204 .

The voting for the Presidential election in the state was scheduled from 10 am to 5 pm at the Committee room of the State Legislative Assembly today.

However, the casting of votes ended at 12:30 pm as all the 60 MLAs came early and cast their votes.

Prior to casting of votes, the ballot box which was placed securely in the strong room was inspected and opened by Observer Anupchandra Pandey who is also the Joint Secretary of Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India, in the presence of PC Lawmkunga, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Manipur and Y Indira, Secretary of Manipur Legislative Assembly.

Chief Minister O Ibobi was the first to cast the vote followed by the Speaker Th Lokeshwar.

The casting of votes by all the 60 MLAs hardly took around two and a half hours and the entire electoral exercise was over by 12:30 pm.

It is said that ballot box would be sealed and carried to Delhi by the Returning Officers tomorrow.

The counting of votes would be done on July 22 and the whole process would be completed by July 24 .

Answering to a query put forward by media persons on the sideline of the Presidential elections, Chief Minister O Ibobi said that the UPA sponsored candidate Pranab Mukherjee would come out successful and become the next President of India.

The Chief Minister also expressed confidence that Pranab Mukherjee would get the votes of all the 60 MLAs of the state.

Opposition MLA and leader of Legislature Wing of Trinamool Congress, Dr I Ibohalbi said that even though PA Sangma is from North East, the MLAs of Trinamool Congress have to go by the instruction of Party's High Command.

Samuel Rison, MLA of NPF, also said that since the Party's High Command supports UPA government, it has become an obligation for the Party MLAs to support Pranab Mukherjee.

The Presidential elections in the state was carried out peacefully without any unwanted incidents.

Tight security arrangements were put in place and all the MLAs were not permitted to take their mobile phones inside the Committee room were the voting was done.

MLA TN Haokip and PHED Minister I Hemochandra were the Agent and Assistant Agent of Pranab Mukherjee respectively while Roshan Meisnam, President of NCP Youth Front was the Election Agent of PA Sangma.

Meanwhile, addressing media persons at Congress Bhawan here, MPCC President Gaikhangam expressed gratitude to all the MLAs for supporting Pranab Mukherjee.

He further stated that we need to elect the right person to the post of President of India and it is a good sign that both the ruling and the opposition MLAs of the state have supported Pranab Mukherjee, who is the right person for the post.

Gaikhangam informed that all the 60 MLAs and the three MPs of the state cast their votes before 1 pm.

The 60 MLAs include 42 Congress MLAs, 7 Trinamool Congress MLAs, 5 MSCP MLAs, 4 NPF MLAs and one MLA each from NCP and Lok Janshakti Party.

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