The NGO Co-ordination Committee in Mizoram has requested the concerned officials to facilitate the Brus residing in Tripura Transit Camps to cast their votes in their respective polling stations. The NGO has said that “it is meaningless” to create special polling stations in one place for all the refugees.
In the 2018 Mizoram Assembly election, special arrangements had been made for Brus residing in transit camps to cast their vote in Kanhmun village along the Mizoram-Tripura border. The NGO Co-ordination Committee comprising the Young Mizo Association (YMA), Mizo Hmeichhe Insuihkhawm Pawl (MHIP), Mizoram Upa Pawl (MUP), MZU and Mizo Students’ Union (MSU) held a meeting at the Central YMA office on Wednesday wherein they arrived at the said decision.
As several repatriation attempts have been made and the Bru refugees have refused to go back to Mizoram, the NGO representatives said if these “Brus who refuse to come back to Mizoram and are willingly staying at the transit camp are going to cast their vote, we request the officials to make arrangements for them to vote in their respective polling stations without setting up special polling stations”.
“If they are not given the facility to cast votes in their respective constituencies, the elections will not take place in Mizoram,” said the NGO Co-ordination Committee. It may be recalled that 15 polling stations were set up in Kanhmun Village where around 52 per cent of the total 11,987 Bru voters had cast their votes. Vehicular arrangements were made by the Tripura government.