Some Voters In Northeast India Go Back To The Polls After Violence Disrupts First Day Of Election

Voters at a handful polling places in a northeastern Indian state went back to the polls amid tight security on Monday after violence disrupted the vote last week.

Indian election authorities voided the results at 11 of Manipur state’s nearly 3,000 polling stations after armed men damaged election machines during the first day of voting in national elections on Friday.

State officials said that at at least six of the stations, armed men broke the electronic voting machines which citizens use to cast their ballots.

Manipur has been wracked by ethnic violence between the state’s two dominant ethnic groups since May 2023. Around 200 people have been killed and over 60,000 displaced as mobs have rampaged through villages and torched houses.

The unrest broke out when Christian Kukis protested a demand by the mostly Hindu Meiteis for a special status that would let them buy land in hills that populated by Kukis and other tribal groups. The clashes have persisted despite the army’s presence in Manipur, a state of 3.7 million people tucked in the mountains on India’s border with Myanmar.

Read more: AP