Manipur: Election commission orders fresh voting across six polling stations
Polling officers at work in Manipur | X/@ANI
The Election Commission of India has declared the polls conducted at six polling stations in the Outer Manipur Parliamentary Constituency in northeastern India as null and void and announced fresh elections in these stations on April 30. The polling at these stations will be conducted separately as no phase of voting is scheduled for April 30 elsewhere in the country. The third of seven-phase voting is scheduled to be held on May 7th.
"The Election Commission of India has, under Sections 58(2) and 58A(2) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, directed that the poll taken on April 26, 2024 (Friday) in respect of 6 polling stations listed in the table below of 2- Outer Manipur (ST) Parliamentary Constituency to be void and appointed April 30, 2024 (Tuesday) as the date for taking fresh poll at the said polling stations with hours of poll from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM," an official statement said.
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Chief Electoral Officer, Pradeep Kumar Jha urged the voters of these polling stations to come out in large numbers to exercise their Right to Vote.
Polling for the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 was earlier concluded in Manipur as 13 of the Assembly segments in the state's Outer Manipur constituency cast their votes in the second phase of polling on Friday (April 26).
Previously, re-polling was held across 11 polling stations of the Inner Manipur Lok Sabha constituency on April 22 after multiple incidents of violence were reported during the first phase of polling on April 19.
The counting of votes and results will be declared on June 4.
The situation in Manipur is yet to normalise completely months after ethnic violence broke out in the northeastern state.
But in previous few weeks, the attempts to heal the ties between the two ethnic groups at conflict have raised hopes of the situation normalising soon in the state that is home to some of India's top Olympic athletes.
(With inputs from agencies)