Arunachal | NPP demands Repolls at violence-stricken Kurung Kumey district

Koloriang, May 1, 2019:

The National People’s Party (NPP) has demanded re-polls at Taba and Nampe polling stations under Koloriang constituency in Kurung Kumey district in Arunachal Pradesh alleging genuine voters were not allowed to vote during the re-polling on April 27.

It may be mentioned that the situation remains tense in the Kurung Kumey district and the SP’s office was ransacked on Monday. A bundle of 37 gelatin sticks was recovered from the helipad there.

The NPP recommended the CEO, Itanagar to conduct re-polling centrally in Koloriang in order to avoid law and order problems and demanded sufficient security forces be deployed to ensure free and fair conduct of re-poll.

As per the reports received from the NPP’s MLA candidate for Koloriang, Pani Taram, and his election agent Arun Yangfo, the NPP in its representation to the CEO said, “The magistrate and police officers on duty had ensured 147 genuine voters of Taba polling station to exercise their adult franchise, but on re-poll day, they were not allowed to cast their votes. The genuine voters were severely tortured and most of them were forcefully dragged out from Taba village.”

NPP workers have also taken out a protest rally in Koloriang and urged the Kurung Kumey district election officer (DEO) to conduct re-poll at the two polling stations as stated in the release.

NPP candidate Taram also complained to the Kurung Kumey DEO demanding re-polls at Taba and Nampe polling stations. Also, Tassar’s brother-in-law, Bengia Bado, claimed that the situation in Koloriang constituency has escalated beyond control due to poll-related violence.

Bado urged the top brasses of the National People’s Party (NPP) in the state to live up to their responsibility to preserve stability and peace and uphold democratic practices to bring an end to the violence.

Meanwhile, the The Nyishi Elite Society (NES) has described 2019 simultaneous elections in the state as the “darkest” elections ever held in the history of Arunachal Pradesh and blamed “inept and callous” handling of the election process by the authorities concerned for the large-scale violence, particularly in Kurung Kumey and Kra Daadi districts.