They may have been away from their native villages for over 11 years following large-scale ethnic violence. But over 8,000 voters belonging to the Bru or Reang community, who have been living in refugee camps in the neighbouring state of Tripura, do not want to miss the opportunity to exercise their franchise.

Even as people in Mizoram are busy with the election campaign, Bru or Reang refugees will cast their votes on Wednesday and Thursday; the Election Commission has arranged for special postal ballots for them.

“This is a special case, and the EC has issued permission to arrange for letting them cast postal ballots. A 70-member team of officials and staff have left Aizawl today for the refugee camps in Tripura,” Lalhmingthanga, joint chief electoral officer, Mizoram, told The Indian Express here on Tuesday. Seven observers appointed by the EC have left separately for the refugee camps.

Lalhmingthanga said two booths would be set up for the 7,906 voters who are lodged in six refugee camps in north Tripura, where the people would cast their votes on November 26 and 27 respectively. Similar arrangements have been made for two groups of Bru refugees in Mamit district inside Mizoram on Wednesday and Thursday, he said.

The Bru or Reang community, numbering about 35,000, has been living as a refugee group in Tripura ever since violent ethnic clashes with the majority Mizo community broke out in October 1997.

Welcoming the EC’s move to arrange for voting by Bru refugees, Elvis Chorkhy, president of the Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum, said the refugees would exercise their franchise primarily for asserting their rights as citizens of Mizoram. “This will give us an opportunity to exercise our political right,” Chorkhy told this correspondent from a refugee camp at Naisingpara in North Tripura.

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