Our Correspondent
Kohima | July 29
The by-election to the 10th Northern Angami –I Assembly Constituency today registered a voter turnout percentage of 78.55 %Chief Electoral Officer Abhijit Sinha said the final voting percentage registered 78.55 % in 25 polling stations. The highest voter turnout was PS no. 24- Chedema Model Village - 92.1%. Lowest voter turnout was PS No.23- Bayavu Hill Lower II- 56.1%.
He said the polling went peacefully and, there was “no major incident” during polling hours. Sinha said that only in the evening, after the poll was closed, a complaint was received from independent candidate Kekhrie Yhome against the BLO for overstaying inside the polling booth at polling station 6 Bayavu Middle and demanded re-polling. In this regard, the matter is now being scrutinised by officials, he added. He said there were some issues in two polling stations regarding some technical hitch related to voting machines in polling station No 17 T. Khel Upper. He said the engineers were sent to the spot and after examination, those machines were replaced. In Polling Station 14 L. Khel Upper, the polling commenced at stipulated time. However after a while, VVPAT machine showed some error and there the machine was replaced too. In other polling stations there were cases of low battery signal and those batteries were also changed. “We did not get report of any untoward incident from anywhere and everything went off very smoothly and peacefully,” Sinha said adding that the voting was cast in free and fair manner Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) including Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) was used in this by-election. Meanwhile, Sinha thanked the Central Para Military Forces stating that they have performed their duties well thereby registering free and fair poll. Additional CEO, N. Moa Aier thanked the Kohima Village Council and Kohima Village Youth Organisation stating that their earlier call for clean election has been done accordingly. Aier also commended all the voters for exercising their franchise in free and fair manner. He said that it was a clean election as no proxy voting was reported.
Counting on August 3
The counting of votes will take place on August 3. The Supreme Court of India has admitted a Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) on July 28 against holding by-election to the 10-Northern Angami-I Assembly Constituency on July 29. In that direction, the SC has issued a notice to the Election Commission of India that the result of the by election would be subject to the outcome of the case. Regarding this, Sinha said, “Till now we have not received any order or any direction from anywhere, adding that unless they receive something the counting stands on August 3 “so there is no change in that.” Unless we get the order and clear directive from Election Commission of India, the counting is already fixed on August 3, he stressed.
The Big fight
The poll witnessed straight contest between former chief minister Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsü (NPF) and independent candidate Kekhrie Yhome. Earlier, NPF candidate Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsü cast his vote around 9:00 AM. He was accompanied by his wife. Independent candidate Kekhrie Yhome also voted at about the same time, and was also accompanied by his wife. Speaking on the sidelines of casting his vote, the former Chief Minister said the by-election is a big fight for him because all the tall leaders of the State are against him. To a query on his plans if he is elected, Dr. Shürhozelie replied that he will remain a member and will see what the future holds. Meanwhile, Kekhrie Yhome expressed that this election with clean and free objective will bear positive result and a benchmark for the people in the coming general elections. He noted that he is representing the aspirations of young people and if elected he would stress on electoral reform as priority. IANS reported today that according to political observers, Liezietsu has an edge citing “sympathy votes” following the dismissal of his nearly five-month-old government.
