Aizawl : Nearly 75 per cent of the total 8.57 lakh voters on Tuesday exercised their franchise in Mizoram Assembly elections at the end of voting hours, even as hundreds were were still lined up to cast ballots, officials said.
Election to the 40-member Mizoram Legislatve Assembly was held in a single phase.
“The voters’ turnout recorded till 4 pm was 74.82 per cent, with a large number of voters still in queues at various polling stations across the state,” Mizoram Additional Chief Electoral Officer H. Liazenla said.
He said the final voters’ turnout could be well over 80 per cent.
Out of the total 8,50,288 electors, 4,39,026 are women. No electors identified themselves as third gender. There are 50,751 first-time voters aged between 18 and 19 years.
According to latest polling statistics, Tuichang assembly constituency recorded a voter turnout of 77.12 per cent, Tuikum 81.33 per cent, East TuiPui 75.12 per cent, and Lawngtlai West 76.44 per cent.
Voting for elections to the 40-member Mizoram Legislative Assembly began at 7 am on Tuesday, amid tight security arrangements. The votes polled will be counted on December 3.
Earlier in the day, a 65-year-old man Lalbiakthanga staged a hunger strike against the Election Commission’s silence over the demand for rescheduling the day of the counting of votes, as polling for the 40-member assembly continued across the state.
All major political parties of the Christian-majority state have urged the poll panel to change the day as it will clash with church programmes.
Chief Minister Zoramthanga is optimistic of his MNF retaining power in Mizoram due to the “good performance” and the initiative for ‘Zo unification’ after the ethnic violence in Manipur since May 3 made more than 11,000 Kuki-Zomi people take refuge in Mizoram.
“There will not be a hung Assembly in Mizoram and MNF will form the government. We hope that we will be able to get more than that, maybe 25 or more. I believe that we will have a comfortable majority,” Zoramthanga confidently said.
Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) chief Lalduhoma, a former IPS officer, who is also the party’s chief ministerial candidate, is in the fray from Serchhip seat.
In the 2023 elections, the ruling MNF, the main opposition party Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) and Congress have fielded candidates for all 40 seats.
While BJP and Aam Aadmi Party have fielded 23 and 4 candidates, respectively, in addition to 27 independents already in the fray.
The MNF had bagged 26 seats with a vote share of 37.8% to emerge victorious in the 2018 polls. The Congress had secured five seats and the BJP won one seat.
