Mizoram council election: Single paper ballot carried for 40km to keep lone voter’s choice secret; EVM could reveal it

AIZAWL: One voter and the paradox of the secret vote. In a remote border village in Mizoram’s far south where refugees outnumber locals, the electorate narrowed to just one name. With it came a strange tension—an EVM would expose the only voter’s hand, forcing an extraordinary workaround.

Officials carried a single paper ballot so the voter could keep his choice private.The polling station in Hmawngbuchhuah village along the Myanmar frontierhad only one eligible voter— Lalsangbera—for the Lai Autonomous District Council (LADC) elections on Dec 3. Casting his choice on an EVM would have revealed his preference. EVMs display candidate-wise totals at each polling station and one vote is too visible to hide.

The machine would have broadcast his choice. To preserve confidentiality, he chose a postal ballot—pooled and counted centrally.

That decision set off a 40-km journey from Lawngtlai town as nodal officer Lalnunpuia and security personnel travelled to the village on Nov 29, DC Donny Lalruatsanga said. Lalsangbera marked his ballot from home.Hmawngbuchhuah had 389 residents in the 2011 census. Today, most are refugeesfrom Paletwa in southern Chin state of Myanmar—locally called Zakhai or Rakhine. Nearly all are ineligible to vote because of their refugee status. In the draft electoral rolls for LADC polls, four people sought scheduled tribe status that would have allowed them to vote. Only Lalsangbera qualified as a voter.The village’s demographic story is shaped by turmoil across the border. Since 2017, around 300 people from Paletwa and other areas fled to Hmawngbuchhuah after armed clashes in Myanmar and refused to return.