Assembly elections: Voting begins in Mizoram

Voting for the Mizoram Assembly elections began on Tuesday morning, 7 November amid tight security measures, election officials said.

Men and women in large numbers queued up in front of polling stations before the voting at 40 Assembly seats started at 7 a.m.

Polling will continue across 1,276 polling stations across the mountainous state till 4 p.m., without any break.

In all, 8,57,063 voters, including 4,39,026 female voters, are empowered to decide the electoral fate of 174 candidates, including 16 women.

The ruling Mizo National Front (MNF), the main opposition party Zoram People's Movement (ZPM) and the Indian National Congress have fielded candidates in 40 seats each, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is contesting 4 seats; 27 independent candidates are also in the fray.

The BJP has fielded candidates in 23 seats with a special focus on linguistic minority-inhabited areas, especially where the Reang and Chakma tribal community are in reasonable numbers in the voters' list.

Additional chief electoral officer H. Lianzela told IANS that 4,832 personnel have been engaged to conduct the ballot across 1,276 polling stations in 11 districts.

A senior police officer said that security has been tightened across the state, specially along the international borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar. Mizoram shares a 510 km porous border with Myanmar and a 318 km border with Bangladesh.

At least 3,000 policemen and 5,400 personnel of the Central Armed Police Forces have been deployed for the polls, the official said.