Allow people to vote without fear: Lhingkim Haokip
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, March 02 2022: Saikul AC INC candidate has urged for allowing die people to vote in the second phase of the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly election, scheduled on March 5, without fear.

Addressing a press meet held at her Koirengei residence on Wednesday, Lhingkim said that the election process in Manipur is not election but selection.

The ruling party BJP used both muscle and money power in the first phase of the polls on February 28.The election scene in Saikul was also quite concerning, taking into account the incidents of booth capturing, the candidates' association with militant outfits, and open threat to the voters.

She continued: "Around 9-10 out of 56 polling stations in Saikul had the polling booths captured.

The voting at polling station 46/15 Thangal Surung ended around 11pm but there was'no BLO present even by then.

Polling station 46/40 did not allow my polling agent to enter, while many wrongs were done at pulling station 46/49 .

Although a written complaint was made to the RO concerned, no action was taken.

The Election Commission also seems to have turned a blind eye.

"Furthermore, the CCTV cameras at the polling stations seem to have been installed for namesake only.

The angle of some of the CCTV cameras on the EVM machine was also found to be erroneous.

Many of the wrongs reported in the Saikul AC could be seen in the CCTV cameras," she said and urged for access to the footages.

Thus, Lhingkim conveyed that she submitted a written request to the RO to examine the CCTV footages of 9 polling stations, namely 46/15, 46/20, 46/38, 46/39, 46/40, 46/42, 46/47, 46/50 and 46/52.Stating that the elections has revealed the travesty of democracy in Manipur, Lhingkim said that if this way of conducting the elections is left uncheck, the future of the state will be bleak.

As such, she appealed to the authority concerned top take up necessary steps to prevent a repeat of similar incidents in tile second phase of the polls, while further appealing for correcting the CCTV angles in the polling stations to deter any wrongdoing.

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