AIZAWL, Oct 12: Ahead of the Assembly election next year, the Mizoram election commission has urged its Tripura counterpart to expedite the process of enrollment of Bru voters in the electoral roll of the neighbouring state, an official said on Wednesday.
Joint chief electoral officer David Liansanglura Pachuau said he requested the Tripura election department to speed up the enrollment of the Bru voters from Mizoram who have re-settled there.
Thousands of Bru voters had fled to Tripura following ethnic tensions that were triggered by the murder of a Mizo forest officer by the Bru militants in 1997. Since then, they have been living in transit camps for more than two decades.
Related Posts:
In 2020, the Union government, Mizoram, Tripura and representatives of several Bru organisations had signed an agreement, which allowed over 35,000 displaced Bru tribals who were reluctant to return during repatriation to resettle permanently in Tripura.
“I’ve spoken to the additional chief electoral officer (CEO) and assistant CEO in charge of the rehabilitation of Brus just recently and requested them to speed up the enrollment process keeping in mind the elections due next year,” Pachuau told PTI.
As many as 11,759 Bru voters who have been allowed to resettle in Tripura were enrolled in the Mizoram voter list.
Pachuau underscored that more than 5,000 Mizoram Brus had been reportedly enrolled in the Tripura voter list and the process of a deletion request to the election department was relatively slow.
Names of 1,992 Bru voters, who originally hailed from Mizoram, have been removed from the state voter list so far following their enrolment in the Tripura electoral roll, he said.
The Bru voters originally belonged to nine assembly constituencies in Mizoram, according to Pachuau. (PTI)
