Aghunaqa Area votes peacefully

Voting for the lone Lok Sabha seat was peacefully conducted in Aghunaqa area falling under Niuland sub-division in Dimapur. It may be recalled that the Aghunaqa Kukami Kuqhakulu (AKK, or GBs Association) had earlier decided to boycott the polls but called off the same after Nagaland State Home Minister, G. Kaito Aye, assured to look into their grievances of polling stations in the said area. Comprising of 38 villages and more than 10,000 voters, people of Aghunaqa area have to travel as far as 40 km to cast their vote at Kiyezu village.

Speaking to The Morung Express, AKK president, Mughavi Awomi, said that the people of the area have been facing the problem for the past 27 years and have demanded polling station for nine villages in the area. However, he said that with an assurance from the Home Minister, the people of the area went out of their homes in large numbers to exercise their franchise on Wednesday.

While some rode in bicycles and private vehicles to reach the polling station at Kiyezu; in some villages, the councils arranged vehicles to transport the voters enabling them to exercise their franchise, he added. The AKK president claimed that almost 90% of the voting population had cast their votes. He regretted that most of the aged people could not vote owing to the large distance between the polling station and their villages.

Meanwhile, sources suggested that in most places in Dimapur, the head of the family exercised their franchise on behalf of the entire family.