Nagaland Assembly Elections 2018: Bogus voting may end once for all

Video recording of polling booths during the electoral process and monitoring through CCTV cameras is expected to end the age-old practice of multiple voting in Nagaland as the remote tribal dominated state goes to polls on Tuesday. This time the slogan has been ‘One man One Vote’ and people are happy to follow it.

Mambo Konyak, pursuing a Political Science degree in Dimapur, has travelled 300 km to his village Lungwa on the India-Myanmar border to vote. “Why should anybody else vote for me,” he says.

Even though he says he does not expect much from politicians of the state he does not want anybody else to vote on his behalf.

In the past the Village Council chairman and family heads had the option of getting consensus from all the voters and caste votes on their behalf.

It’s an open secret that politicians spend huge amounts to buy votes in the state. “This time things are expected to change with video recording of polling booths. There is no way that the same person can vote more than once,” said one of the candidates.

It’s no surprise that voter turnout in the state has been as high as 90 per cent in the past. “This time the voter turnout might fall down but that will be a good sign. It means multiple voting has not taken place,” says an official.

Locals say it was common for the entire village to vote for one candidate. Yanpothung Kingphen a resident of Changmang on the Nagaland-Assam border says this time “copying system” is not going to work.

People in Nagaland have not seen long queues for voting in the past. With the real voters getting to the polling booth that too is expected to change.