Over 24,500 displaced voters in Manipur relief camps to vote in 94 special polling stations

IMPHAL — Over 24,500 eligible voters, housed in relief camps in ethnic violence-hit Manipur, will exercise their franchise at special polling stations in the two-phase elections for the state’s two Lok Sabha seats, officials said on Sunday.

Election officials said that the displaced voters would exercise their votes in the 94 special polling stations to be set up in the relief camps in 10 of the state’s 16 districts, on the directions of the Election Commission.

The highest number of 24 polling stations would be set up in Kangpokpi district, followed by 22 in Bishnupur district, 15 in Churachandpur district and the remaining 13 in seven other districts.

According to officials, 29 special polling stations would be set up in the relief camps under the Inner Manipur Lok Sabha constituency while 65 such polling stations would be set up in the Outer Manipur parliamentary seat areas.

The Manipur government currently runs around 320 relief camps, housing more than 59,000 men, women, and children. After the ethnic violence broke out in Manipur on May 3 last year, over 70,000 people, including women and children, of both the Meitei and Kuki-Zomi communities were displaced from their homes and villages and took shelter in safer places in the state and outside, including neighbouring Mizoram.

Inner Manipur Lok Sabha seat would go to polls in the first phase on April 19 and the voting in the Outer Manipur seat, reserved for the tribals, would be held in two phases – on April 19 and April 26.