IMPHAL ,Jan 28: For the first time in the history of the state, the 10th Manipur Legislative Assembly polls which was supposed to conclude at 3 in the evening dragged on till almost 9 pm in some stations today amidst loud groans from the weary voters.
“I have been standing in this queue since 8.25 in the morning and now its nearly 1 pm and am still nowhere near the entrance, my feet aches and I sort of feel harassed ! This is not the way that an assembly poll should be conducted and, there is something wrong with the voting system”, Shashikumari Aribam, a voter of Thangmeiband a/c told IFP.
Similar scenes were witnessed in many valley districts polling stations and complaints were voiced that the voting process was moving at a snail’s pace. Since the polling stations opened up at 7 am today, voters started queuing up and there were reports of errors in the EVM machines which caused delays in the voting process. The machines were however later fixed by experts but the delay continued.
For an individual to cast a vote , he or she must line up in separate queues and later verified by the polling agents inside the polling station by ascertaining the house number and credentials from the electoral roll of the area, later the individual is ink marked in the finger, the thumb impression taken and later a photograph is taken along with the marked fingernally, the person gets to cast the vote in the EVM. The process in many stations approximately took about 4/5 minutes per person.
Nalini, a voter of Sagolband 11/8 polling station complained, “We have been standing since morning. The afternoon Sun is also harsh and I came without having lunch in the expectation that it would be a speedy process. Where on Earth does it take more than 5/6 hours to cast your vote. This is not acceptable”, she said.
She also added that some of her friends left without casting votes due to the slow voting pace.
Meanwhile it was reported that, touts were distributing amount of Rs 1000 and above to woo voters in the polling areas.
Ranjit (name changed) of Keisamthong a/c candidly said that he was waiting till the evening to get the maximum amount being doled out by the touts. “We might even get Rs 2000, so we are holding out to see”, he said.
At the stipulated closing poll time of 3 pm, the queues were huddled inside the compounds and the gates of the pooling stations were closed by security guards banning further entry of possible voters.
The voting process carried out till late evening in the valley areas and some even reported of crossing 9.30 pm.
Interestingly, voters which were supposed to be photographed by using digital cameras for controlling proxy voters were substituted with cheap mobile phones. As darkness set in and due to shortage of power, many polling stations were illuminated with candles and the photos were shot by using candlelight.
Inquiring the CEO about the delay in the poll process, PC Lawmkunga said that it may have been caused due to the process of photographing the candidates.