Voting underway for lone LS seat, Assembly by-poll in Mizoram

Mangalore Today News Network

Aizawl, Apr 11, 2014: Voting for the lone Lok Sabha constituency and an Assembly by-poll in Mizoram began on Friday morning amid unprecedented security.

The by-election is being held for the Hrangturzo Assembly constituency.

The Mizoram Lok Sabha seat is witnessing a three-cornered contest between the ruling Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and the United Democratic Front, which is an alliance of eight opposition parties.

Congress has fielded its sitting MP CL Ruala, while UDF has nominated Robert Romawia Royte. AAP has put up Michael Lalmanzuala as its candidate for the seat.

An electorate of 7,02,189, of whom 3,55,954 are women are eligible to cast votes in 1,126 polling stations.

In 385 polling stations, mainly in urban areas, the VVPAT system, under which a paper trail would show the voters their choice of candidates, has been installed.

Eight companies of central paramilitary forces apart from six state armed battalions as well as unarmed policemen are looking after the security.

International borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh and inter-state borders have been sealed, official sources said.

The election, earlier scheduled for April 9, was shifted to April 11 after a clutch of civil society bodies called a 72-hour bandh from April 7 to protest against the EC’s permission to Bru refugees, camped in Tripura, to vote in that state instead of Mizoram which the strikers had demanded.