DESPITE the Election Commission’s (EC) decision allowing the Reang or BRU refugees sheltered in six North Tripura camps since 1997, to cast their votes through postal ballots  for the April 20 Lok Sabha polls    in Mizoram, the refugees will boycott the polls if the names of over 16,000 eligible voters were  not included in the electoral rolls of Mizoram.

For the first time in the NE region, the EC took such a decision allowing the displaced persons to caste their votes through postal ballots. The EC had recently included the names of Chakma    and Hajong refugees in the electoral   list of Arunachal Pradesh, which is being vehemently protested by the All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU).

Nearly all the 35,000 displaced BRUs, have decided not to participate in the April 20 Lok Sabha polls unless the names of   the eligible voters were not  included in the rolls of Mizoram, Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF) leaders have said. Mizoram has only one Lok Sabha seat.

The MBDPF leaders said during the enumeration of voters in July 1993 at the six north Tripura relief camps by the Mizoram Government, names of 15,884 Reangs were enlisted, but after the so-called ‘scrutiny’ in Aizawl only 4,266 names were enlisted in the final electoral rolls. They urged the Election Commission of India to defer the Mizoram LS polls and conduct a summary revision of electoral rolls to include the names of elegible voters from among the refugees. The EC in a recent notification has asked the Reangs to apply for the postal ballot paper in the prescribed form by April 10. All migrant electors can post their application forms and drop their postal ballot papers in the ‘special letter boxes’ which would be available at the offices of the six assistant returning officers in North Tripura, the EC said.

A Tripura Election Department official said the EC, following the demands of the Reang tribal refugees, has asked the Mizoram Government to take appropriate steps so that the tribal refugees could exercise their electoral franchise through postal ballots.

Some of the tribal refugees also exercised their franchise for the 40-seat Mizoram assembly election on November 20 last year after the EC had set up some polling stations along the Tripura-Mizoram border. The Tripura Government at that time arranged transportation for the refugee voters. The Reang tribal refugees, had been sheltered in six north Tripura camps during the past six and a half years after they left their homes in Mizoram following ethnic violence in their state. Of the little over 31,000 refugees, names of 4,266 evacuees were included in the Mizoram’s voters’ list. The Reangs, one of the most primitive among the tribes, had been demanding an Autonomous Council in Mizoram for their overall development. The Mizoram government, on several occasions rejected the demand and held a series of inconclusive meetings with the leaders of the refugees. Mizoram Chief Minister  Zoramthanga assured Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in January this year that the Reang tribal refugees would be taken back within one months.The Mizoram Chief Minister made this assurance to the Prime Minister when he, along with other North-Eastern Chief Ministers of the NE states, met Mr Vajpayee in New Delhi on January 20. The Mizoram Chief Minister also informed the PM that some of the armed extremists had been creating problems over the repatriation of the tribal refugees.

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