DIMAPUR, Jan 4 � The Election Commission of India (ECI) said today that Assembly elections in Nagaland will be held before the tenure of the present House expires.
The current Nagaland Assembly term expires on March 18. �We have to conduct the Assembly elections in Nagaland before March 18,� said VS Sampath, Chief Election Commissioner while addressing the media here today.
A complete team of ECI arrived here yesterday and met top bureaucrats and leaders of political parties.
Sampath said he had instructed all the district magistrates to start preparing for the Assembly elections.
He said �more than one political party� had requested the ECI for �better security during the polls�.
�Yes, adequate security will be provided and Nagaland will witness free and fair polls,� assured the Chief Election Commissioner, adding, �We had met the chief secretary and the DGP yesterday and had discussed on this count.
He also said that the political parties had requested the ECI to ensure that a person is not allowed to vote several times. �We will ensure that it should be one-man, one vote. No one has two votes,� added the Chief Election Commissioner. He also said that the concerned officials have been asked to device a mechanism to address this bogus voters issue.
He stressed that the election expenditures of the candidates will be strictly monitored by the ECI.
Election Commissioner HS Brahma said, �There is no room for the malpractice where few village leaders used to vote for the whole village.� He said there is no dual voters dealing and �we will closely see that such cases do not occur�.
There are 11.9 lakh voters in Nagaland of which six lakh are males and 5.9 lakh females.
