AIZAWL, April 1: Mizoram’s civil
society groups have threatened to
boycott election to the lone Lok Sabha
seat in the State scheduled for April 11
if the Bru refugees are not made to
cast their votes in their respective
polling stations where they are
enlisted as voters.
Like it did in the State Assembly
elections in November last year, the
Election Commission has made
arrangements for Bru refugees in
Tripura, who fled Mizoram since 1997,
to exercise their franchise in special
polling stations at Kanhmun village in
Mizoram near the Tripura border.
Taking exception to this decision, a
meeting of NGO Co-ordination
Committee here today, decided to
stage indefinite bandh from April 8
which would prevent smooth election
to the Lok Sabha and bye-election to Aizawl West-1 Assembly constituency
to be held simultaneously on April 11.
“The NGOs Coordination Committee feels that we have had enough of
problems created by the Bru refugees,
who despite several attempts to
repatriate them refused to come back.
To stop this once and for all, the
Committee decided to take this
extreme step and appeal the people of
Mizoram to support us,” a statement of
the Committee said today.
NGO Coordination Committee
comprises of all major civil societies and
students’ organisations in Mizoram.
The committee also appealed
owners of vehicles acquired for
election process to stay off the roads
and support the call for election
boycott.
Meanwhile, State CEO Ashish
Kundra said he had appealed to the
Committee to reconsider their decision
to boycott the upcoming Lok Sabha
polls, saying such an action is not a
democratic form of protest.
Kundra said that he met with the
Committee more than a month ago and
appealed it to understand the position of
the Election Commission and the
impracticability of the demands to
facilitate the Bru tribals cast their votes
in their respective polling stations.
Similar situation had arisen ahead of
2014 Lok Sabha poll in Mizoram in
which the civil societies organised a
bandh to disrupt election, prompting
the EC to reschedule the polling day
from April 9 to April 11. That time, the
NGOs were protesting the EC’s
decision to allow the Bru refugees to
vote through postal ballots from their
camps. The bandh was called off after
the EC’s announcement and the State
Government’s promise to repatriate all
Brus refugees in Tripura-based relief
camps. The State Government also
said it would disfranchis.
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