GUWAHATI: The NGO Coordination Committee in Mizoram has threatened to boycott the Parliamentary elections if the Election Commission goes ahead with its plan to arrange voting for the displaced Brus (Reangs), lodged in relief camps in neighbouring Tripura, at Kahnmun in Mizoram’s Mamit district.
The committee, which is a conglomerate of some influential Mizo civil society and student organisations, demanded the displaced Brus exercise their franchise at polling stations in Mizoram where they were enrolled as voters. It threatened to boycott the polls if the Brus cast their votes at Kahnmun.
Ahead of last Mizoram elections held in November, 2018, it was due to pressure from this committee that the Centre was forced to remove the state’s then Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) SB Shashank. The committee had some differences with him on the issue of the displaced Bru voters among others.
In the last Mizoram elections, the Bru refugees had cast their votes at Kahnmun for which special arrangements were made by the Election Commission. Then, the committee had no issues. Now, it has come up with a new demand.
According to Mizoram’s election department, 15 special polling booths will be set up for the displaced Bru voters at Kahnmun.
“There are around 12,000 Bru voters in Tripura relief camps and like in last Mizoram election, they will come to vote at Kahnmun. This is as per the order of the Election Commission,” Mizoram’s CEO, Ashish Kundra, told this newspaper.
He also said that the Tripura government would make the arrangements for the transportation of the Bru voters to and fro Kahnmun on April 11 when Mizoram goes to polls. They will return by the same day, Kundra added.
In the last Mizoram elections, over 6,000 Bru voters, lodged in Tripura relief camps, had exercised their franchise at Kahnmun.
Mizoram has a Bru population of over one lakh and they are scattered mostly in Mamit, Kolasib and Lunglei districts. In 1997, over 40,000 of them had fled to Tripura in the wake of their riots with the Mizos. A few thousand of them returned to Mizoram over a period of time. Prior to last Mizoram elections, the refugees had cast their votes in the relief camps in Tripura. Last election, the Mizo committee had demanded they come to Mizoram to exercise franchise and the Election Commission ceded to the demand.