More than 1,000 policemen in Mizoram were unable to cast their votes in the Lok Sabha polls held on April 19, officials of the state election department said.

These personnel were deployed in other states for poll duty several days before April 19, the day when the northeastern state voted, they added.

Although arrangements were supposed to be made for the police personnel to vote at facilitation centres, no such provision was made as they had to leave the state before candidates could be finalised, officials said.

Despite requests made to the Election Commission on two occasions to allow the police personnel to cast their votes, the appeals were allegedly rejected by the central poll panel, officials added.

In response to this, the People’s Conference (PC) party wrote to Election Commission principal secretary SB Joshi urging the poll panel to permit 1,047 policemen from Mizoram to exercise their franchise before the counting of votes.

The party criticised the authorities for failing to arrange the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) for the police personnel and emphasised that these 1,047 votes could have played a meaningful impact on the poll results in a small state like Mizoram.