Biggest Challenge To Restore Public Faith: Mizoram's Poll Panel Chief

As rival parties fight a bitter poll battle to grab power in this north-eastern hill state, Mizoram's new chief electoral officer has said the "biggest challenge" for him has been to restore public faith in the election process after intense protests by civil society and political groups against his predecessor.

Ashish Kundra, who took charge as the new Chief Electoral Officer after S B Shashank was removed amid protests over allowing Bru voters lodged in Tripura relief camps to vote from there, personally visited the bordering Kanhmun village twice after taking charge to oversee the arrangements despite appointing a six-member high-powered team, including an IAS and an IPS officer, for this job.

In his first interview after taking over on November 15, Mr Kundra told PTI that the challenge for him was also to ensure that the integrity of the election machinery is not questioned in Mizoram, which will have polling on Wednesday to elect 40 legislators.

"The biggest challenge to begin with was to restore the confidence and trust of the civil society in the institution of the election machinery and to ensure that the integrity of the election machinery is not questioned in the minds of the general electorate," he said on-board a chopper travelling from Aizawl to Kanhmun.

To handle this issue peacefully, the challenge was to make an arrangement of voting, which is acceptable to both Mizo civil society and Bru refugees, and is also done in a short span of time, he said.

Declining to comment on decisions made by his predecessor Shashank, Mr Kundra said the series of events that took place in recent times were "very unfortunate".

After reaching Kanhmun, 190km away from Aizawl, Mr Kundra along with his team, held a series of meetings at a tourist lodge with the six-member team, police and civil society bodies.

Talking about Kanhmun village arrangements, Mr Kundra said that 15 special polling booths have been set up for voting by 11,967 Bru refugees, who are part of nine Assembly constituencies in three district of Mizoram.

As per the directions of the Election Commission, a special team has been formed under Kumar Abhishek, who has been flown in from Delhi after the crisis, while Assistant Inspector General of Police (Training) Devesh has been made in-charge of security arrangements.

Asked about the EVM and VVPAT back-ups, he said: "We have adequate back-up stocks for any replacements. Usually about 30 per cent is back-up, but in some remote areas polling parties are given 100 per cent back up also because it is difficult to transport in case of a failure."

For polling on Wednesday, the Election Commission is likely to incur an expenditure of about Rs 30 crore, Mr Kundra said.