Meitei refugees wait onboard a paramilitary truck at a transit point after being evacuated from the violence that hit Churachandpur, near Imphal. File
| Photo Credit: AFP
GUWAHATI People who fled the ethnic violence in Manipur and took refuge in the neighbourhood, specifically Mizoram, will be able to vote in the Lok Sabha elections only if they return to their home State.
Manipur’s Chief Electoral Officer Pradeep Kumar Jha said no voting arrangement had been made for people who left the State after the ethnic violence broke out on May 3, 2023, between the Kuki-Zomi and Meitei communities.
Some 12,000 Kuki-Zomi people took shelter in Mizoram, the government in Mizoram had claimed ahead of the Assembly elections in November 2023.
On March 16, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said the poll panel notified a scheme to allow the displaced voters of Manipur to exercise their franchise from their respective camps. Mr. Jha, however, told journalists that the scheme was limited to Manipur’s territorial jurisdiction.
The Manipur government has estimated that the number of internally displaced people within the State was 60,000 in relief camps across 10 violence-hit districts.
“People who left the State can vote if they return home or any district of Manipur where they would feel comfortable to be in for the electoral exercise,” a State Election Department officer said.
According to the Election Commission of India scheme, Manipur’s internally displaced people will be considered ordinary residents of the place where they have been displaced from and treated as electors of the original place.
“…The internally displaced persons are required to submit ID forms to the designated AROs [assistant returning officers] at least 10 days before the date of the poll. An adequate number of forms shall be made available at the offices of district election officers, designated AROs and at the relief camps. A copy of the scheme is also made available in the websites of Chief Electoral Officer, Manipur, and district election officers,” the March 16 official statement said.
Letting the displaced people of one State vote in another has a precedent. Some 40,000 Bru people who fled ethnic violence in Mizoram in 1997 voted through postal ballots twice from their relief camps in Tripura.
In the subsequent elections, they were taken to a border village in Mizoram where special camps were set up by the Mizoram government for them to vote. The Mizoram and Tripura governments arranged their travel and security together.
The Manipur and Mizoram governments are unlikely to follow the process without any official arrangement in place for the 12,000 Kuki-Zomi people taking shelter in Mizoram. A leader of the displaced people at a camp at Falkland in Mizoram’s Aizawl said it would be too expensive and time-consuming for them to go to Manipur to vote if the governments of the two States do not take care of their travel and security.
