Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat told The Telegraph on Tuesday that the poll panel is yet to take a decision to allow Brus in transit camps in Tripura to vote in the Mizoram Assembly elections.

He said: “Any decision (to allow voting by postal ballots in the camps) will not be taken now, but only at the time of polling. Unless something serious happens, we stand by our written commitment to the state government in 2014 that voting will be held only within the state.”

A team of three, led by Jharkhand’s chief electoral officer Lalbiaktluanga Khiangte (who is from Mizoram), reached Aizawl on Tuesday and began talks with civil society groups along with chief secretary Arvind Ray and principal secretary (home) Lalnunmawia Chuaungo’s successor Lalrinliana Fanai.

The NGOs are demanding Mizoram’s chief electoral officer S.B. Shashank’s ouster after the Election Commission removed Chuaungo for interfering in the poll process by obstructing enrolment of Bru displaced persons and resisting deployment of central forces.

Rawat said: “The theft of enrolment forms from the deputy commissioner’s office in Mamit (in August) shows the whole system was trying to disenfranchise people. There is something seriously wrong as it amounts to thwarting the process established by the Constitution. The Election Commission cannot remain a mute spectator to this….It stands committed to what we had told the state government in 2014. Only in case anything serious happens — like this theft — the EC may review how polling is conducted.”

“The chargesheet on the theft and burning of voter enrolment forms filled up by the Brus, was filed on October. It names three officer-bearers of the Central Young Mizo Association (CYMA) and one of the Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP),” a source in Mizoram said.

Predominantly Hindu Bru tribals, who fled to Tripura after clashes with mostly Christian Mizos in 1997, voted through postal ballots within transit camps until 2014. A negligible number of Brus returned to Mizoram despite a repatriation pact, backed by the Centre, in July.

The Congress government has backed the Mizo groups, blaming Shashank’s “incompetency” for the impasse with civil society and demanded that Chuaungo be reinstated.

Chuaungo came under the Election Commission’s glare after he gave “evasive replies” when questioned about his orders against recognising Bru displaced people’s identity slips — issued by the Mizoram government — for enrolling them as voters, in October. Despite the theft of forms, 1,200 more Brus have been enrolled although Mamit’s deputy commissioner Bhupesh Choudhary was transferred after demands by groups including the CYMA and the MZP.

There are currently around 11,500 Bru voters in the camps. Shashank’s office and residence in Aizawl have been fortified by the BSF.

Boycott threat: The Federation of Mizoram Government Employees and Workers threatened to boycott the polls if Shashank does not leave the state by Friday and called his allegations on Chuaungo “unwarranted.” They told the Election Commission, in a letter given to the Khiangte team on Tuesday, that “Chuaungo be relieved of home department” and not transferred out.