To elect 60 legislators to the 10{+t}{+h} Manipur assembly, the state went to the polls on January 28 and a repoll was conducted in 34 booths on February 4 in the hills. Under the supervision of the three EC-appointed special supervisors, a two-day exercise on comparing voters' photos was conducted in Imphal a few days ago. The exercise detected gross mismatch in voters' photos taken on poll day and those in the electoral rolls in 177 booths.
The EC has already decided to conduct fresh repoll in all polling stations where voters' photos have been not matching. Responding to the instructions of the EC, state election officials are currently carrying out the voters' photo comparison task in the remaining booths by using a software on the premises of state election office in Imphal.
The non-Congress parties convened a joint meeting in Imphal on Saturday in which it was unanimously decided to urge the EC to count only the valid votes after rejecting the mismatched votes. Taking into account the allegations raised by various parties that a large number of postal ballot papers have been misused by state security officials, the meeting also asked the EC to figure out the exact number of postal ballot papers utilized in the polls and invalidate the misused ones before counting takes place.
Manipur unit NCP president and opposition leader Radhabinod Koijam, Manipur People's Party (MPP) president Nimaichand Luwang and representatives of other parties attended the meeting.