Silchar, March 19: Poll observers are baffled by the unusual pre-poll listlessness on the part of both voters and candidates who are yet to launch their campaigns.

Non-fulfilment of promises by elected members and a consequent poll boycott threat by several tea labourer unions in the south Assam districts may have contributed to this.

Reports say nearly 13,000 voters living in the villages under Nimaichandpur and Kalacherragaon panchayat areas in Hailakandi have threatened to boycott the polls. The decision was taken at a meeting held yesterday at Nimaichandpur village. The villagers were asked to refrain from exercising their franchise at the meeting, presided over by a village elder, Manya Kumar Sinha.

The villagers issued an ultimatum asking the party leaders to fulfil their demands immediately. Plugging erosion of the Dhaleswari River near Lala township, repairing the roads, solving the drinking water crisis were some of their demands.

A farmer who moved the boycott motion, dubbed polls as ?sheer farce?. These areas fall under the constituency of Congress legislator Gautam Roy. Roy?s promise to build a bridge connecting the villages during the previous Lok Sabha elections still remains unfulfilled, villagers allege.