Mizoram election deferred

Aizawl, April 8 (IANS) The election to the lone Lok Sabha seat in Mizoram has been deferred to April 11 due to a three-day shutdown and poll boycott call by NGOs and students' bodies, an official said Tuesday.

The polling was earlier scheduled to be held April 9.

"The election commission considering the prevailing situation in Mizoram, deferred the lone Lok Sabha polls in Mizoram to Friday. The commission issued this directive Monday night," Mizoram Chief Electoral officer Aswani Kumar told IANS.

He said: "In view of the fresh directives of the election commission we are taking measures accordingly to hold the poll April 11 instead of April 9."

Another election commission official said that the 72-hour strike, which began Monday, in Mizoram affected the movement of polling officials across the state, bordering Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Normal life was affected in Mizoram since Monday as six NGOs and student groups called for a three-day shutdown and boycott of the April 9 election to the lone Lok Sabha seat from the state to protest postal ballot facility to the tribal refugees living in Tripura for the past 17 years.

"There was no untoward incident anywhere in the state so far," a Mizoram police spokesman said but admitted that normal life was badly affected across the mountainous state.

Government and non-government offices, shops, markets and other institutions remained closed in the capital city Aizawl and other parts of the northeastern state. Most vehicles, except those of security forces, were off the roads, police said.

Six voluntary organisations and students' groups led by the Young Mizo Association (YMA) called the 72-hour state-wide strike and urged people to boycott April 9 polling.