IMmphal, May 26 – Despite the 48-hour bandh in Chandel district, the first phase of polling for the Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) in Churachandpur, Chandel and Sadar Hills was held amidst tight security.

By and large, the polling was reported peaceful except some unwanted incidents in Henglep area of Churachandpur district which has as many as 170 poling stations out of 255 polling stations in these three ADCs. Today’s polling which started from 7 am and continued till 3.30 pm will decide the faith of 134
candidates who are in the fray across 39 ADC constituencies.

Out of the 39 constituencies, 15 are in Churachandpur district in which 53 candidates are in the fray. Forty candidates are in the fray for 12 constituencies in Chandel district while 41 candidates are in the fray in 12 ADC constituencies in Sadar Hills.

There are a total of 72 constituencies in Manipur’s six ADCs namely –Churachandpur, Chandel, Sadar Hills, Senapati, Tamenglong and Ukhrul.

The second phase polling of the last three ADCs will be held on June 2.

Adequate security arrangements for the smooth conduct of the poll have also been made with the deployment of Central paramilitary and State security forces.

In Chandel district, despite having Chandel Civil Society Coordination sponsored 48-hour Chandel district bandh, there is no report of any untoward incident across it’s 60 polling booths though there was very low turnout of voters.

A polling station – Lambung in the district was found with just three voters polled at around 10 am when a media team visited the venue.

The polling in Churachandpur looked like the Assembly election in terms of it’s polling pattern according to the residents. “Proxy voting was very high this time”, a resident said, adding “This might be because of lack of voters’ ID card”.

Even if there is no report of boycott of the elections in Churachandpur and Sadar Hills of Senapati district, there were reports of burning of ballot boxes of four polling booths besides some disturbances in Khurkhul area, sources said.

However, when contacted, media centre of the State Election Commission could not confirm any re-polling. “We cannot say anything as of now”, an official said over telephone. The overall polling percentage in the first phase of the ADC poll is not known till the filing of this report.