The Election Commission office in Mizoram on Sunday said more than 1,000 policemen in the state were unable to cast their votes in the Lok Sabha polls held on April 19.
According to the officials of the state election department, these personnel were deployed in other states for poll duty several days before April 19, the day when the northeastern state voted.
Usually, arrangements are made for the police personnel to vote at facilitation centres, but no such provision was made for Mizoram personnel. The officials said, arrangements to vote at facilitation centres were not made as they had to leave the state before candidates could be finalised.
They claimed that requests made to the Election Commission on two occasions to allow the police personnel to cast their votes, but the appeals were allegedly rejected by the central poll panel.
The People's Conference (PC) party raked up the issue with Election Commission principal secretary SB Joshi and urged him to permit 1,047 policemen from Mizoram to exercise their franchise before the counting of votes.
The party criticised the authorities for failing to arrange the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) for the police personnel and emphasised that these 1,047 votes could have played a meaningful impact on the poll results in a small state like Mizoram.
(With PTI inputs)
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