Mizoram Election Chief Denies Foreigner Inclusion in Voter Rolls

Aizawl: Mizoram Chief Electoral Officer Garima Gupta shut down claims of foreign nationals hiding in state voter rolls on Saturday. Officials found zero evidence of foreigners during a massive, weeks-long verification sweep. The audit comes after the student group Mizo Zirlai Pawl flagged a massive spike in voter numbers within Chakma-majority regions.

Gupta dismissed the talk of abnormal growth. She told reporters, "The draft electoral roll did not reflect any abnormal increase in voter numbers." The intensive check lasted from May 20 through June 28. It involved knocking on doors across the state to verify every name on the list.

Election teams handed out over 875,000 forms. They got back and digitized nearly 829,000 of them. Mizoram is the first state to finish digitizing these records this year. Booth-level agents from political parties tagged along to keep the process honest.

Officials deleted 46,163 names during the update. Many were dead or had moved away. Some simply could not be found despite return visits to their homes. A few hundred even refused to sign up for religious reasons. Aizawl holds the most voters with over 272,000 registered citizens.

The window for filing objections stays open until August 4. Officials will grind through the paperwork until September 2. The final, updated roll drops on September 6.