Nagaland State votes

85.62% voter turnout for lone Nagaland seat in Lok Sabha

DIMAPUR/KOHIMA, APRIL 9 (AGENCIES): With the primary agenda of the Naga political issue, Nagaland wants to elect a representative to its lone Lok Sabha seat on April 9. By 10am, only 20.9% of the voter-populace had considered casting a vote, which by 2pm has swollen to 60%. By the end of the day, official estimates suggested that 85.62% of the electorate had cast its votes in Nagaland.

Nagaland State Chief Minister and Naga People’s Front candidate Neiphiu Rio contested the polls against Congress candidate K.V. Pusa, and Socialist Party (India) candidate Akhei Achumi.

Apart from Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Meghalaya voted in the second phase of the Indian elections on April 9. Two Lok Sabha seats in Meghalaya, the only Lok Sabha seat in Nagaland, one of the two Lok Sabha seats in Manipur and both the Lok Sabha seats in Arunachal Pradesh elected their Members of Parliament. Manipur registered 80% polling, while Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh registered 71% and 55% respectively. The voting in the four states marked the second phase of the country’s 10-phase poll that will see 814 million Indians exercise their franchise to elect 543 members to the Lok Sabha.

The Commissioner Home and Returning Officer (RO), Parliamentary Elections, Nagaland, Temjen Toy, in a press conference at the Commissioner’s office stated that the polling for the 16th Lok Sabha election in Nagaland began as scheduled at 7am and concluded peacefully at 4pm.

He informed that out of 2059 polling stations in Nagaland, polling process could not be conducted at Ladaigarh under 149 Tamlu A/C  due to denial of entry of polling parties into Ladaigarh by Assam police. He added that though the public has been restless about not going to polls with the rest of Nagaland, the general mood has been pacified and given assurance that Nagaland Election Commission will approach the Election Commission of India to fix another polling date for the particular constituency at the earliest. Ladaigarh polling station  is located at the government lower primary school which has been occupied by Assam Police since 2007 despite a Supreme Court order to maintain status quo.

Temjen Toy also informed that malpractices were reduced reasonably in this Lok Sabha election due to introduction of webcasting and the presence of micro observers in polling stations.

By the end of the polling process on April 9, the RO gave out the voter turn-out figures in all the districts, which he said could be subject to change. The highest voter turn-out was registered at Kiphire with 95.83% while the lowest was recorded at 72.74% in Tuensang, according to the officer’s estimates. The rest of the districts recorded voter turn-out percentages as follows: Dimapur- 79.90; Kohima- 81.33; Peren- 82.04; Pughoboto- 93.61; Phek- 91.53; Mokokchung- 89.89; Zunheboto- 78.53; Wokha- 81; Mon- 79.22 and Longleng- 90.

The provisional voter turn-out percentage for the 2014 Lok Sabha election in Nagaland is 85.62%.   

In all, 1,182,903 voters including 581,758 women were eligible to cast their ballots at 2,059 polling stations in Nagaland. Thirty-three companies of paramilitary forces were deployed to ensure peaceful polling. Over 12,000 polling personnel were engaged in the balloting process. The poll panel also appointed four central observers. This was the first time that Nagaland webcast poll proceedings in 84 polling stations. Counting of votes will happen on May 16.