Mizoram Assembly elections: Poll panel defends Bru postal ballot

Chief election commissioner V S Sampath on Wednesday defended the EC’s move to conduct a postal ballot for more than 11,000 Bru tribals lodged in seven relief camps in neighbouring Tripura for the Mizoram elections,saying the commission was merely following a high court order of 1999 that stipulates internally displaced persons should also be able to vote.

Prominent Mizo student bodies have argued Brus in relief camps have no right to vote in Mizoram because they are unwilling to be part of an ongoing repatriation process only 1,000-odd families among an estimated 6,000 families have returned home in three years.

At a meeting with parties on Tuesday,some concerns were raised… Parties were apprehensive that there may not be free and fair elections and that there may be intimidation by vested interests, Sampath said. We will ensure free and fair elections,and the Mizoram CEO will liaise with the Tripura CEO for this. The Mizoram CEO has been asked to re-verify the rolls so there are no wrong entries.