Agartala: Feb 18: Polling for Tripura Assembly elections was held on February 16. The election process will end on March 4. The Election Commission was strongly committed to zero pool violence. But since the completion of the polls, the Election Commission was left reeling after frequent incidents of terrorism across the state. The district governor held a meeting with the local leaders of the political parties in the 23 sub-divisions of the state on Saturday.
He urged to keep the situation peaceful in the state without taking the law into hands. If there is any fear of any untoward incident, call the Election Commission’s helpline number immediately because the dignity of Tripura is destroyed through terrorism. It is not Tripura culture. State Election Commission chief officer Kiran Gittye held a press conference on Saturday in the conference hall of the West District Governor’s office in view of the extreme terror in the state in the last 48 hours. He said that five incidents happened on Election Day. A case has been registered in this incident. He said that one person was arrested while donating one’s vote to another. A total of 6 FIRs have been lodged. There is no incident of violence in Dholai district so far. Similarly, there was no incident of violence in North District.
An incident occurred in Khwai Singi Rhyme. Two sporadic incidents occurred in Gomti district. Two incidents took place at the same place in Unkoti district. No incidents of violence occurred in the southern district. Two incidents occurred in West Tripura. Sipahijla district has seen the most incidents of violence. A total of nine cases have come forward from Dhanpur, Sonamura, Nalchar, Boxanagar and Bishalgarh. The commission has taken action in each case. Mission Zero Poll Violence should not be confined to the Election Commission alone. All political parties and citizens of the state should play a role to keep the image of the state beautiful and transparent in the whole country. He urged people not to take law and order into their own hands. The Chief Electoral Officer said that there are still enough security forces in the state. A peace meeting was held on Saturday with representatives of all political parties through the sub-divisional rulers. They are called upon to maintain peace and harmony. The message is to keep an eye on the incidents of terrorism so that it does not increase continuously. The Chief Electoral Officer sought the cooperation of people from all sections to keep public life normal. There will be adequate security personnel after the enumeration. Free, peaceful and fair elections were held on February 16. He said that any kind of unrest is not desirable now. He said there were long queues of voters in many polling stations before 7 am on the appointed day of polling. Many voters were queuing up at 1,682 polling stations in the state after midnight, the last time for voting. Two lakh people were standing in line to exercise their right to vote after 4 pm. Finally their votes are taken.
Voting was held till 10:55 pm in Taibandal of Dhanpur assembly constituency. All EVMs are brought to the strong room at night. These EVMs are sealed in the strongroom in front of the representatives of all the political parties. There is a period of 14 days till counting after polling. In this case, the Election Commission has made special security arrangements. The triple security system will include strong rooms. There is a system of CCTV surveillance. Representatives of all political parties can be present in the monitor room for monitoring. One TCS officer will be in three shifts to monitor all strong rooms. Observers scrutinized the forms paid by the Presiding Officer on Friday. There are demands for re-polling from two assembly constituencies.
One is Golaghati and the other is Matabari. There will be no repolling in any assembly and polling stations. The commission took this decision after considering all the reports. In the press conference, Chief Electoral Officer Kiran Gitte also said that according to the statistics obtained so far, 89.95 percent of votes have been cast in the state elections. So far 21 people have been arrested in 16 cases related to post-election terrorism. Appeal to all the citizens of the state to come forward to maintain peace and harmony. West District Superintendent of Police Shankar Debnath urged not to give political color to personal family and neighbor enmity. He wants the cooperation of all political parties so that normal life does not fail. The district governor urged to maintain peace in the same manner. Officials of the central forces were present on this day.
