Terming Manipur as a “difficult” state for holding elections considering the law and order situation, Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswamy today announced that the upcoming elections to the 9th Manipur Legislative Assembly will be held amidst tight security. The CEC added that the very fact that this time around, the election will be held across three days with much higher security than the previous one in 2002 (held across two days) should signify the ECI’s commitment to conducting free and fair polls in the state. The CEC said he and his team — comprising Election Commissioners Navin Chawla and YC Qureishi — had held meetings with different political parties, as well as the DCs and SPs of all districts, the Director General of Police and the state home secretary. Gopalaswamy said the political parties had complained that many polling stations often had only one or two homeguards for security, and in this regard, a minimum of one section of Central Paramilitary forces would be deployed at each of the 2,053 polling stations in the state. While the CEC refused to say how many additional security personnel would be needed, the state government has submitted a proposal to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs requesting an additional 200 companies of Central Paramilitary Forces, thus fixing the total requirement at 379 companies (37,900 personnel) for a voters’ list totalling 16,87,543 voters, state home department sources said. As per the proposal for deployment of security forces submitted to the MHA, 62 companies of personnel will be required for Thoubal district. Out of the 62 companies, the requirement of companies of permanent armed personnel is four. For Imphal West and Imphal East, 51 companies each will be required out of which five companies each are armed personnel for dealing with law and order in each district. Churachandpur needs 46 companies of security personnel, out of which four would be armed. Bishenpur district requires 36 companies, four armed companies are for law and order and five are unarmed companies. Tamenglong district requires 29 companies. For Ukhrul and Senapati district, excluding Kangpokpi, the requirement is 25 companies each out of which four are for law and order enforcement. The security requirement for ADC, Kangpokpi is 21 companies out of which four are to be armed. Chandel district requires 19 companies and ADC Jiribam requires 11 companies of security personnel, four armed and one unarmed, the proposal has stated. The ECI will be sending 30 observers for the three-phase elections, and 3,000 EVMs have been brought to the state as against the requirement of 2,053. The CEC has also asked Chief Secretary Jarnail Singh to address the infrastructural needs of the polling staff such as provision of vehicles and functional telephone lines. He added that 17,000 names had been deleted from the voters’ list after verification. Political parties have been assured that all candidates would be provided with security cover without discrimination, as well as all polling staff. The second phase to be held on February 15 would most probably be held a day earlier as the designated date clashes with a Naga festival. Home Secy assures free & fair electionsGUWAHATI: Union Home Secretary VK Duggal said here on Thursday that the Centre would take all possible steps to ensure that the Manipur Assembly elections were fair and free as well as peaceful. Duggal, who flew in to Guwahati after reviewing the Manipur poll preparations, said the Centre’s intention was to ensure that the people of Manipur were able to come out freely and cast their votes without any coercion or fear. “The government will ensure that there’s no booth-capturing, coercion and threats,” Duggal said. “We are not interested in who wins or loses. It is the democratic right of the common man that has to be protected and steps taken to ensure that he exercises it freely and fearlessly.” Duggal also said there would be no dearth of security personnel for deployment during the elections in Manipur. “We will provide whatever security reinforcement is required.”
