Dior caught the attention of the voters and security personnel alike at GPS Chisholimi polling station under 13 Pughoboto AC on February 27. The fluffy man's best friend faithfully sat in line the whole way through as her human parents stood in queue to cast their vote. (Morung Photo)
Morung Express News
Kohima | February 27
Amidst the stressful atmosphere of election related hatred and violence in the past few days till today, some amusing real life incidents here and there added sparkles to the sombre 14th Nagaland Legislative Assembly Election 2023.
Unexpected amusing incidents happen in our lives very often, yet some incidents which happened such as today, are memorable at this juncture with the state in election. Here are some real life election related happenings.
Dereliction of duty
While it is not uncommon to see people drunk during election, in a case of dereliction of duty by a government officer who was a presiding officer from Ghaspani-II reportedly went missing from election duty. His report was marked ‘drunk and ran away.’
Speaking to The Morung Express, one of polling officers said the officer in question didn’t come and kept all the paper works pending on the eve of polling day.
‘With lots of paper works to do for the next day, late night, we requested for his replacement on urgency,’ he said.
EVM spoof ups
Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) has changed the voting system over the years; however, it still remains as a very new concept for many who are used to paper ballots.
In an incident under Ghaspani-II AC, a woman mistakenly cast her vote for another candidate. She reportedly got confused with the symbols with three candidates in the fray namely NDPP, LJP (Ram Vilas) and RPI (Athawale). As recounted by those standing in queue, she reportedly came out ‘fuming’ and lamenting after realising what she had cast her vote for the wrong candidate.
Either due to ignorance or lack of right information, a woman was heard innocently asking, ‘Is it true that they know for which candidate we are voting by the beep of the EVM?’ When enquired further on this, it was learnt that she wanted to vote for the other candidate of her choice, and not the one she was asked to vote for. However, she was apprehensive on being caught and wanted to make sure of the functioning of EVM machine.
Serenading the crowd
In Kushiabill under Dimapur-III, in a video a young man was heartily singing a popular Hindi song serenading and cheering the voters who were queued up. The crowd was cheering him, while the security personnel were seen enjoying the song and taking videos of him.
Candidates’ tidbits
Minister Temjen Imna Along known for his witty remarks and humours posted a video playing carom chilling out laughing with others which went viral in the social media. He is contesting from 30-Alongtaki AC from BJP.
Indian National Congress candidate from 4-Ghaspani-I, Akavi N Zhimomi was also seen in a video praying at the polling station for peace before the commencement of the poll.
In another video, Vevoyi Vadeo NPP from 17-Chizami was seen asking his supporters to move away to let the other voters from NDPP party to cast their votes.
When contacted, he confirmed the incident that happened at Sakraba and that he has to take the matter due to the numerous complaints received from the other party. “My supporters outnumbered them, and as they were at the end of the line, they have made complaints that they were not allowed to vote,” said Vadeo. He however, added other than that there were no incidents and everything went peacefully.
