Lok Sabha polls: EC to set up special polling stations for voters in Manipur relief camps
Election Commission of India (ECI) will set up special polling stations in relief camps to enable voters displaced by the ethnic violence in Manipur to cast their votes in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Election officials said that the ECI made this decision after consultation with the Central and state governments.
“As per past precedent of similar nature, internally displaced electors shall be provided with the facility to vote at special polling stations to be set up in relief camps,” an ECI statement said.
“An Additional Deputy Commissioner or an officer of equivalent rank or SDO (of the district in which the specified voters are staying) may be designated as Assistant Returning Officer for each district, as the case may be, exclusively for specified voters,” it said.
Voting in these polling stations will be conducted using separate Electronic Voting Machines for each parliamentary constituency.
The Manipur government is currently operating around 320 relief camps with more than 59,000 men, women and children staying in them.
Manipur Governor Anusuiya Uikey on Wednesday said that 219 persons lost their lives and displaced more than 60,000 people due to the violence. A total of about 10,000 FIRs have been registered so far and the state government handed over 29 cases to CBI and one case to NIA for independent and transparent investigation.
Manipur witnessed unprecedented violent clashes, attacks, counter attacks and arsoning of houses, vehicles and government and private properties in more than 10
