New Delhi: The counting of votes in Mizoram will be held on Monday (December 4), instead of Sunday (December 3) as notified earlier, the Election Commission said in a statement.According to the EC, the change is in response to “several representations from various quarters”. “The Commission has received several representations from various quarters requesting for change in the date of counting from December 3, 2023 (Sunday) to some other week day, on the ground that December 3, 2023, being Sunday a special significance for the people of Mizoram,” the EC statement said. The change in the counting date will not affect other states where elections concluded recently. The counting of votes will take place on December 3, as announced earlier, in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Telangana.The Wire had reported earlier that churches in Mizoram, on Sunday, November 26, held special prayers to seek “divine intervention” to help in their efforts to persuade the poll body to reschedule the counting date. Being a Christian-majority state, Mizoram considers Sunday solely as the day of worship.The Mizoram Kohhran Hruaitute Committee (MKHC), a conglomerate of 15 major churches of the state, had also urged all churches this past Saturday (November 25) to organise prayers during the Sunday church service to seek “help from God” for a change in the counting date.A five-member delegation of the NGO Coordination Committee (NGOCC), an Aizawl-based umbrella body of NGOs and student organisations, stayed put in New Delhi last week to seek an appointment with the chief election commissioner (CEC) on the matter. The delegation came to the national Capital after pleas by civil society groups and political parties to the State Election Commission (SEC) had gone unheard. Those pleas were made as soon as the CEC in New Delhi had announced the election schedule in the state along with December 3 as the common date for counting of votes in all the five poll-bound states.