Kohima: The web casting of 84 polling stations of Nagaland’s only Lok Sabha seat has exposed proxy voting despite the State Election Office putting the poll percentage around 80.
A pointer was the absence of the long queues normally seen on election days.
The web casting, shown in the Media Cell of the Chief Electoral Officer, was displayed in a broad screen along with the latest percentage of the district headquarters on Wednesday.
It revealed that one person cast five votes for all the family members, a tradition in Nagaland as most villages are in the remote area and all don’t want to trek over 15 km to the polling booths.
But this time the ECI had ordered ‘one man, one vote’. Despite the order, the old practice continued.
In another polling station, one person was displaying a bundle of Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) and appealed to the presiding officer to let him cast the votes of all his family members.
Reports also said in some polling stations there were hardly any voter by afternoon while in some female voters overwhelmingly outnumbered males. In one particular case, a voter who went to cast votes along with his wife and mother, was shocked to discover that votes had already been cast in their names and surprisingly without EPICs.
The people of Aghunaqa Kukami Kuqhakulu(AKK), falling under Niuland sub-division in Dimapur, who had threatened to boycott the polls and later called off their protest, had to reach the polling stations over 15 km away to exercise their franchise. The AKK president claimed that almost 90 per cent of the voting population had cast their votes. He regretted that most aged people could not vote owing to the huge distance.
However, reports said in most places the head of the family exercised the franchise on behalf of the entire family.
Members of Kohima media fraternity brought to the notice of Nagaland Returning Officer Temjen Toy during the briefing yesterday. He promised to look into it. (UNI)