Panchayat Polls: Irregularity & disorder prevalent in 1st Phase

December 5: The first phase of Panchayat Elections held on Wednesday in 16 districts of Assam witnessed irregularities and disorder in many places. As many as 23,505 polling stations had been set up with 8,243 marked sensitive and 3,665 marked hyper sensitive.

Voting had to be suspended for a long time at Rowmari after names of more than 800 voters were found missing from the rolls. People expressed tremendous anger on finding their names absent in the voter list.

At 64 No East Tengal Gaon Panchayat, mismatch of the party symbols of the Congress and BJP infuriated the voters. It was claimed that 500 ballot papers displayed the ‘lotus’ symbol against Congress candidate Rekhamoni Hazarika and the ‘hand’ symbol against BJP candidate Poornima Hazarika Kachari. As a result of this confusion, voting process was delayed.

Another such incident of irregularity was reported at 80 No Lachitgarh Gaon Panchayat in Kamrup where candidate Soma Dey’s named was mentioned as Soma Das and another candidate, Priyanka Pal’s name was mentioned as Priyanka Das. This resulted in delay of voting in that centre.

At Barekuri village in Tinsukia, people of the locality locked a polling station. As per reports, Independent candidate Stephen Dhan is contesting for the seat of Hatijaan Gaon Panchayat No 1 ward member whose symbol was ‘candle’. However, it was found that the symbol of ‘cup-plate’ was used againsthis name instead of ‘candle’.

Names of 107 voters were allegedly missing from the rolls of No 116 Pacharia Gaon Panchayat in Jalukbari area. All the 107 voters were supposed to exercise their franchise at  Pacharia Sishu Vidyalaya. A ruckus occurred there due to massive discrepancies in electoral rolls as per claims made by the local populace.

Villagers of the 64 No East Thengal Gaon Panchayat under Titabor sat for protest on the issue of name of Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) candidate of the Ward No IX, Momi Begum’s name was missing from the ballot paper. The GP supporters demanded adjournment of the voting.

More than 100 people of Tatunbari Village Panchayat found their names missing from the voter list. They were supposed to cast their votes at a polling booth installed at Gohpur Kanaklata Model Girls’ High School in Gohpur. In another similar incident at polling booth No 120 and 121 in the Ghogora Village Panchayat, names of more than 150 voters were missing from the voters’ list.

Alleging low quality ballot papers, angry voters at Hathipara in Nagaon burned ballot papers leading to disruption of the voting process. The incident occurred at No 11 Hathipara Primary School, which delayed the polling process.

Names of over 450 voters went missing from the voter list in two wards of No 8 ward Amsing Gaon Panchayat and ward  no. 9. of Pragjyotishpur Zila Parishad constituency.

Chaos was also reported from Bakul Chariali Hindi LP School when around 500 voters were debarred from casting their votes on the ground that their names were missing from the voters’ list. Angered at this incident, the local people locked the polling station.

More than 100 people failed to cast their votes at 37 No polling booth at Tupamari. People became infuriated as only three ballot papers out of four were sent to the polling booth. However, due to the timely intervention of the Circle Officer, the situation was brought under control.

Voting was adjourned at Mandakata Gaon Panchayatunder Jalukbari due to incorrect ballot paper. Repolling in the centre will be held on 7 December.

Names of more than 150 people were found missing from the voters’ list of the villagers of 59 South Katani tea garden in Mariani. This enraged the locals and they decided not to cast their votes.

Voting in Nalanibari village of Gohpur sub division in Biswanath district was disrupted when out of 3805 voters of the tea garden, at least 1,500 names of voter’s were mising from the voters’ list.

Panchayat polls vecame violent in Biswanath district after a group of angered locals set the ballot papers on fire. The incident took place at Sadharu Kachari Line LP School polling booth for the Mukhar Garh No 2 Ward members in Biswanath.

At Lakhimpur district too, polling was marred by large-scale irregularities and chaos with suspension of voting in various polling stations where hundreds of voters found their names missing in the electoral roll and demanded for re-poll.