Counting of votes for Nagaland Assembly elections begin

Kohima, Mar 08 (UNI) Counting of votes for the elections to the 60-member Nagaland Assembly began at 1100 hours this morning.

Election office sources said the counting of votes polled on March 5 has been taken up simultaneously in 12 district headquarters.

State Chief Electoral Officer C J Ponraj, in a release issued here, said the counting was supposed to begin at 0800 hours.

However, according to the new directives of the ECI, it would start three hours late, the officer had said.

The ECI did not specify the reason for the delay in the counting.

The fate of 218 candidates, including four women, and ten political parties and Independents will be decided in the counting.

Congress has fielded 60 candidates for all the Assembly constituencies, while Nagaland Peoples Front (NPF) fielded 56, followed by RJD 25, BJP 23, NCP eight, Janata Dal (S) four, Lok Janashakti Party three, Adarsh Political Party one and Independents 33. Eds: Pick up suitably from earlier series.

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