KOHIMA, March 15 — Election Commission has extended the date for completion of assembly election process in Nagaland from March 14 to 31, reports PTI. The Commission has withheld results of Arkakong and Kiphire-Pungro assembly segments after detecting gross irregularities during the last month’s polling for the general elections in the state.
The Commission officials have already made on-the-spot visits to the two constituencies and held hearing with representatives of political parties before referring the matter to the poll panel for final decision. The office of Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in a release said here today that the Commission has extended the date for completion of the election process with regard to the two assembly segments from March 14 to March 31.
After completion of counting of ballots, it was found that vote polled in Arkakong segment was higher than the electorate enrolled in the voters list while at Kiphire-Pungro, political parties came out with instances of gross irregularities like booth capturing, proxy voting, damage of EVM etc.The four-party coalition government came to power with the support of independents ousting the Congress from 10 years of ruling in February elections in Nagaland.
Team for Delhi: Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio today left for New Delhi leading a high-level delegation to seek a financial package from the Prime Minister to revive the economy of the state hamstrung by a huge fiscal deficit. The delegation, comprising Finance Minister K Therie and other members of the Cabinet besides top bureaucrats, is expected to call on A B Vajpayee to discuss the financial problems faced by the state, official sources said.
On March 13, the chief minister called a meeting of department heads and took stock of the state’s financial position and subsequently issued directions to the administration to avoid wasteful expenditure. Nagaland has a huge deficit of more than Rs 500 crore. Therie had earlier told PTI.