Mizoram casts 50% votes in 6 hours (Afternoon Lead)

Over 50 per cent of the 7.68 lakh Mizoram voters had their franchise in six hours to elect a new assembly on Wednesday, a poll official said.

"Little over 50 per cent of the 7,68,181 voters cast their votes by 1 p.m.," Chief Electoral Officer Ashish Kundra told the media.

Long queues of colourful motley crowd were seen outside many polling booths in all districts well before the voting began at 7 a.m.

With the polling process in the state being peaceful, police and other official sources in fact put the voting percentage around 62 till 2 p.m.

"Conducive situation and favourable climate helped the electorate to exercise their franchise smoothly," Kumdra said, adding that some EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) and VVPAT (Voters Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) devices malfunctioned, but no untoward incident was reported so far.

The CEO said that several voters aged above 100 cast their votes, with the help of their family members, at different polling stations.

The nine-hour long polling would draw to a close at 4 p.m.

Bordered with Myanmar (510 km) and Bangladesh (318 km), the mountainous Mizoram is the Congress' last bastion among the eight Northeastern states.

The ruling Congress led by incumbent Chief Minister and state party chief Lal Thanhawla is determined for a third consecutive term despite a stiff challenge mounted by the main opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) headed by former Chief Minister Zoramthanga.

Both the Congress and MNF have fielded candidates in all the 40 Assembly constituencies.

The Congress has been in power, except for 10 years, since Mizoram became a full-fledged state in 1987. The MNF, a constituent of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), ruled during those 10 years -- 1998-2003 and 2003-2008.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is also trying to make its presence felt as it has fielded 39 candidates, its highest ever.

Many regional parties, including Meghalaya's ruling National People's Party (NPP), have fielded candidates for most of the 40 seats.

Women voters have once again outnumbered the men in Mizoram. There are 3,93,685 women and 3,74,496 men and they will decide the fate of 209 candidates, 15 of whom are women.

The Election Commission has set up 15 special polling stations at Kanhmun, a village along the Mizoram-Tripura border, to facilitate voting by Reang tribal refugees, sheltered in Tripura for the past 21 years.

"The BSF (Border Security Force) and Assam Rifles troopers have been asked to further tighten the security along Mizoram's borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar," a Mizoram Election Department official earlier said.

Votes will be counted on December 11 along with four other poll-bound states -- Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Chhattisgarh.

--IANS

sc/in/sed