Church bodies, groups in Mizoram to submit petition again to ECI to change date of counting

Aizawl:  Perturbed over the long silence of the Election Commission of India regarding the demand to change the date for counting of votes polled in the upcoming elections to the 40-member Mizoram Assembly, church bodies and various organisations in Mizoram have decided to once again submit a petition to the poll body and wait for its response before deciding further course of action.
The Election Commission of India has fixed December 3 which falls on Sunday as the date for counting of votes polled in the upcoming Mizoram Assembly elections to be held on November 7.
The Mizoram Kohhran Hruaitute Committee (MKHC), a conglomerate of leaders of major church denominations in the state, NGO Coordination Committee (NGOCC) and the Mizoram People’s Forum (MPF) held a joint meeting on Thursday night at Aizawl, and decided to submit another appeal to the Mizoram Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Madhup Vyas on Friday.
The poll panel should response within 24 hours, failing which, another joint meeting will be held after the expiry of the deadline to decide future course of action.
The NGOCC is an umbrella organisation of all major civil societies and student bodies – Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), Mizo students’ federation and Mizo Students’ Union (MSU) while the MPF is a church sponsored election watchdog.
The appeal to the election authorities is to change the date for counting of votes from December 3 to December 4 or 5.
“We will make our final decision after the lapse of the 24-hour deadline. Though we do not know what decision will be made on the future course of action, but it is most likely that the future course of action is to ensure that the counting of votes will not happen in Mizoram on December 3 (Sunday),” one of the leaders said.
Anger has mounted due to the long silence of the ECI which on the other hand, has accepted requests from Rajasthan not to conduct the polling on Dev Uthani Ekadashi, an auspicious day for Hindus when a large number of weddings are scheduled to take place.
The poll panel on November 11, announced that it had deferred the polling datevin Rajasthan from November 23 to November 25.
All major political parties in the state, including the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF), Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM), Congress and BJP have submitted appeals to the ECI to defer the date of counting of votes. The NGOCC, obtaining signatures of all the political parties, civil societies and student organisations also had submitted the appeal to the poll panel through the state CEO.
The MKHC and other individual church denominations also submitted letters opposing the date of counting on December 3, and appealed for its deferment to another date which does not fall on Saturday or Sunday.