CHANDEL, April 9: Election for the outer parliamentary Constituency of the 16th Lok Sabha at Chandel District went off peaceful today except for a hiccup at Polling Station 41/21 Lambung Primary School.
Since early morning, voters came out to exercise their franchise at their respective polling stations.
However, a group of people believed to be supporters of a particular candidate vandalised an Electronic Voting Machine at polling station 41/21 Lambung Primary School around 12.15 pm and voting had to be discontinued following the incident.
On receiving the report of the incident, District Magistrate Chandel, Th Chittaranjan Singh rushed to the spot.
There are however, no reports of arresting the persons involved in the incident till the filing of this report.
And for the first time in the history, Underground cadres who are signatories of tripartite agreement of Suspension of Operation (SoO) with the Central and State Government also exercised their franchise in the parliamentary Election of the 16th Lok Sabha today at their respective designated camp.
In Chandel District, cadres of Kuki National Army (KNA), United Minorities Liberation Army (UMLA) and Pakan Revolutionary Army (PRA) cast their votes at the Hermon Designated camp of Kuki National Organization.
Out of 231 cadres, only 13 cadres exercise their franchise through postal ballot in presence of Nodal Officer and Assistant Designated Officer.
Commanding officer of the 1st Battalion of Kuki Army, H Haokip expressed his gratitude to the present government and Election Commission of India for allowing exercising their franchise.
However, most of the cadres were deprived of their right to vote as the government failed to make any arrangement for the other cadres nor were they allowed to cast their votes in their respective polling station.
Further he appealed the concern authorities to provide the right to vote to all the cadres to choose their representatives.