Journalism of Courage
A top Election Commission official accompanied by Mizoram poll officials visited Tripura on Wednesday,where more than 11,000 internally displaced Brus living in six relief camps have been identified as eligible to vote in Mizorams upcoming Assembly elections.
ECI Director General Ashish Srivastava,Mizoram Chief Electoral Officer Ashwani Kumar and Joint Chief Electoral Officer Lalengmawia visited the neighbouring state Wednesday morning.
Lalengmawia told The Indian Express over phone that the team is looking to verify how elections will be conducted in the relief camps where Brus,who fled ethnic conflict with the majority Mizos in 1998,have been living for the past 16 years.
As things stand now,the voters in the relief camps will vote using ballot papers and not EVMs since that is the overall preference there. They had largely preferred using ballot papers even in earlier elections,we will most likely do it again this year, said Lalengmawia.
There are more than 11,300 Brus in the relief camps whose names are on Mizorams electoral rolls.
They are registered under nine Assembly constituencies spread over three districts of Mamit,Lunglei and Kolasib,where the community is concentrated.
