Guwahati, March 5
Around 70 to 75 per cent voters today exercised their franchise to elect their representatives to the 60-member Nagaland Assembly under tight security after braving bad weather in may parts of the hill state that is now under President’s Rule.

According to information gathered from the election control room in Kohima, the polling was by and large peaceful all over the state barring few stray incidents of violence in some parts of the state, where elections were held under the shadow of two Naga rebel groups-NSCN-IM and NSCN-K-in truce.

Over 13 lakh voters were expected to cast their votes to seal the fate of total 218 candidates, including four women and many political bigwigs of the state such as former Chief Minister Neiphu Rio of Nagaland People’s Front, his arch rival and Congress Legislature party leader I. Imkong. There are 33 Independents in the fray.

Total 10 national and regional political parties, including Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party, Nagaland People’s Front, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Nationalist Congress Party, contested the election that in final analysis turned out to be a contest between the NPF and the Congress.

Over 1,6,000 paramilitary personnel were deployed covering 1,780 polling stations spread over 10 districts of the hill state for smooth holding of elections. There were complaints about proxy voting in some parts of the state though the Election Commission adopted some innovative measures like involving of grass-root level statutory bodies and deployment of micro observers, to prevent proxy voting the insurgency-hit state.

There were reports of goons shooing off voters from many polling booths to facilitate proxy voting. Some of the polling booths, where proxy voting was suspected were thronged by mostly young voters in their 20s, while presence of elder voters was insignificant. The election officials were looking into complaints of rigging received from some parts of Mon, Mokokchung and Tuensang districts of the state. Officials did not rule out re-polling in some of those areas.