Mizoram Assembly Elections: Polling officials reach Bru refugee camps

Aizawl: The polling party on Monday reached the six relief camps for Bru refugees in North Tripura district and would supervise polling by Bru voters on Tuesday and Wednesday while the polling in the election to the 40-member Mizoram assembly to be held on November 25.

The 11,612-strong Bru electorate in Tripura would be exercising franchise through postal ballots in the camps for Mizoram polls. The polling party, comprising 74 desk officials and seven nodal officers went to Tripura via Zomuantlang hamlet as the activists of the Mizo Students Union (MSU) organised a blockade at the Mizoram-Tripura border river Langkaih in Kanhmun village yesterday. The students objected to the conduct of polling in the camps by sending polling officials from Mizoram as they alleged that the Brus refused to return to the state despite several pleas from the centre, state government and the civil societies. State Joint Chief Electoral Officer H Lalengmawia said that three platoons of police personnel were deployed at the relief camps to ensure free and fair polling. Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath, while visiting Mizoram recently said that Bru voters lodged in the camps in Tripura were allowed to exercise franchise in the camps in accordance with the Delhi High Court order in 1999.