for grabs, have come to a mutual agreement in sharing the seats that they acquire if they succeed in overpowering the presently ruling party in the elections.

The MNF and the MPC had managed to secure forty-one percent of the total number of votes cast, which was higher than that of the Congress which had secured only forty percent of the votes, however, it seemed as though Congress had managed to, so as to say pull a rabbit out of a hat, by moving into power with thirty-two seats. All of this had ultimately resulted in the two political parties to actually come together with a mutual understanding, in order to defeat a bigger foe in the hope of coming out with fruitful results. In the end, it was decided that the only way to achieve this was to come up with a seat-sharing agreement between both the political parties.

The joint appeal for the implementation of the VVAT system was sent to the Chief Electronic Commissioner V. M. Sampath by the Mizoram National Front, the Mizoram People’s Conference, the Zoram Nationalist Party (ZNP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Under this seat-sharing agreement, it was decided that the MNF will arrange candidates for thirty-two seats and that the MPC will cater to the remaining eight seats. It was reported that these two parties had come to this decision after long discussions and negotiations that had spread over three weeks. At first the MPC had offered to yield only 7 seats for their party, however, the MNF insisted that they should have 10 seats instead. After the three weeks of negotiations between three member delegations from each party, the conclusive decision had been reached. However, both the parties have still not come to an agreement as to which seats will be contested by which party member. Presently the two parties have been working together in the opposition in the Aizawl Municipal Council.

The Mizoram National Front (MNF) and the Mizoram People’s Conference (MPC), have suddenly decided to unite and join hands in the hope of overthrowing  the present ruling party of state, Congress.

On another note, a matter relating to the reliability of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), has been questioned by four opposition parties in Mizoram. These four opposition parties have voiced out their demands for the implementation of a Voters Verifying Paper Audit (VVAT) system, along with every EVM during the Assembly polls to be held on the 4th of December, 2013. The joint appeal for the implementation of the VVAT system was sent to the Chief Electronic Commissioner V. M. Sampath by the Mizoram National Front, the Mizoram People’s Conference, the Zoram Nationalist Party (ZNP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The main reason for this appeal is because of the fact that these political parties suspect that the EVMs can be tampered and manipulated with. By the implementation of the VVAT the political parties hope that this would rid them of their insecurities and doubts on the EVMs. The VVAT enables the voter to see in print the vote cast by him/her; however, the paper slip of their vote will not be handed over to them but rather kept away separately in the polling booth.

The opposition parties had opted for the modification along with the EVMs due to the fact that the VVAT system had been exercised earlier during the Assembly by-poll elections held in Nagaland which had yielded a positive response in its implementation.

Whether, this new addition to the EVM will ensure transparency during the elections and also whether the newly formed association between the MNF and the MPC will be successful in their quest will only be answered in time. Until then things are still not certain as to whether the above stated actions will be fruitful or not.

Hubert Nongkhlaw.