Displaced people can vote if they return to Manipur

GUWAHATI: Unlike in the past, people, displaced by the ethnic violence in Manipur and taking shelter in other states, will not be able to vote in the Lok Sabha elections unless they return to their state. Manipur’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Pradeep Kumar Jha said there is no voting arrangement for people, who left the state. On March 16, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar had said the displaced people in Manipur would vote from relief camps. “We have drawn a scheme which we have notified. The scheme allows voters in the camps to vote from their respective camps,” Kumar had stated. The Manipur CEO told this newspaper the scheme is limited to Manipur’s territorial jurisdiction. “The scheme is for the internally-displaced persons. We know that about 60,000 people from across communities are staying in the relief camps in 10 districts. Regarding people in Mizoram, nobody has approached us,” Jha said. “We are setting up special polling stations (in relief camps). But they will have to apply,” the CEO said. As per the scheme, the internally displaced persons will be considered as ordinary residents of the place where they have been displaced from and treated as electors of the original place.



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