Voters cry foul in 5th Panchayat election and demand re-poll

By A Staff Reporter

IMPHAL | Oct 12

The results of the 5th Gram Panchayat election of the state have been declared yesterday and today, and many zilla parishads cried foul in the voting, counting and declaration of the results.

Reports of complaints from Ngaikhong Khullen ward no.8, Khurai ward no.7 and Hiyanglam GP came in today at Manipur Press Club.

Member candidate of Hiyanglam GP, ward no.5/6, Sapam Kumarjit said that unfair means have been used in the counting of ballot papers by presiding officers on duty. He alleged that during the voting day, voters were allowed to do thumb print ballot instead of using allotted stamp method by presiding officer on the late hours.

However, he said that yesterday in the counting, the RO denied thumbprint votes and “we feel that our voting rights have been denied.”

One of the counting agents, urged re-poll and not to let the five yearly rare opportunity of the people exercising their voting rights go waste. He demands re-poll alleging discrepancies and unfair means used by the election official.

Khangembam Rajchandra Singh, social worker of Ngaikhong Khullen, ward no.8 said that voting rights were denied for his zilla parishad. After voting, presiding officers told agents that 378 voted on October 7, but during counting there were only 376 ballots.

He said that applications were given to the DC and the returning officer not to declare the result until the missing two votes were sorted out. But the RO had declared the result anyway and we condemn the neglect, he added.

Another complaint is from 8/20 ward no.7 of Khurai area which also complained two votes were missing but declared result anyway (439 out of 441).

The complainants demanded re-poll and condemned the biased and irresponsible conduct of election officials in the 5th Gram Panchayat election.