Use ballot papers in assembly polls, MNF urges to EC

The opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) on Tuesday demanded that ballot papers be used in the November 28 assembly polls in Mizoram instead of EVMs.

The MNF also appealed to the visiting EC team led by Chief Election Commissioner Om Prakash Rawat to install mobile jammer at counting halls during counting of votes to be held on December 11.

"Why should electronic voting machines be used in Indian elections? Even developed countries use ballot papers. EVMs are extremely expensive," senior MNF leader H Rammawi said after meeting the EC team.

The EC team is on a visit to Mizoram to review poll preparedness in the state. The election to 40-member Mizoram assembly would be held on November 28.

Another opposition party, the National People's Party, urged the poll panel to instruct to the Mizoram government to improve road condition before the polls.

Most of the roads and highways in the state were in extremely bad condition and movements of poll workers as well as political parties were being hindered because of this, an NPP leader said.

The NGO Coordination Committee, a conglomeration of three major NGOs and two student bodies, urged the EC to defranchise all the Bru voters who chose to stay back in Tripura and did not return to Mizoram.

Only 40 of the 5,407 Bru refugee families returned to Mizoram from the six refugee camps in Tripura during the stipulated one month of repatriation process that ended on September 30.

A leader of the NGO Coordination Committee said, "The Bru community in Mizoram does not have any problem.