Nagaland polls: EC orders re-election in 4 voting stations on Wed

Kohima: The Election Commission on Tuesday declared re-voting at four polling places in Nagaland where Assembly elections were conducted on Monday, according to officials.

Wednesday's new voting will take place from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the following polling places: New Colony (Zunheboto Assembly constituency), Pangti-V (Sanis Assembly constituency), Jaboka Village (Tizit Assembly constituency), and Pathso East Wing (Thonohy Assembly constituency).

The EC in a letter to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Nagaland, V. Shashank Shekhar, said that on the basis of reports submitted by the general observers, and after taking all material circumstances into account, the Commission hereby declares the polls held on February 27 at the four polling stations as void and fixes March 1 (Wednesday) as the date of fresh polls.

Election officials in Nagaland did not explain to the media the reasons for re-polling in the four polling stations.

According to election officials, voting was largely peaceful on Monday across the northeastern state except for some incidents of violence reported from five districts -- Mokokchung, Wokha, Mon, Zunheboto and Tseminyu.

In Akuk village under the Bhandari Assembly constituency in Wokha district, supporters of a candidate attacked the rival party workers using sharp-edged weapons in which three persons were injured.

Firing by underground militants, and stone pelting by rival party workers were also reported from Wokha and Mon districts, in which five persons were injured, including two security personnel.

Briefing the media on Monday night, Shashank Shekhar had said that the law and order situation all over the state was largely peaceful and polling was successfully completed in all the 2,315 polling stations.

Meanwhile, the Nagaland government on Tuesday prohibited the use of mobile internet and data service of all the service providers in the entire Kiphire district with immediate effect till further orders in view of the tension in the district after Monday's polling.

Nagaland Home Commissioner Abhijit Sinha said in a notification that messaging services like SMS and WhatsApp and other social media platforms could be used for spreading rumours, false information, and for circulating inflammatory texts, pictures, videos etc., which may exacerbate the law and order situation in the district.