According to one source, voting was going on as of June 29th, for the Nagaland civic body elections, which took place after two decades of pause.
“The state election commission spokesperson said that the counting for the polls to 24 urban local bodies— three municipalities and 21 town councils is underway in within ten districts in sixteen centers which started at eight o’clock in the morning.”
He added: “Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) won uncontested all nine seats of Chiephobozou Town Council in Kohima.”
More than eighty-two percent out of over two lakh twenty-three thousand electors voted during municipal polls conducted on June 26. This year’s urban local body elections were held with thirty-three per cent reservation for women as this comes a decade after their last happening of 2004.
The government had announced several times earlier about holding elections to Urban Local Bodies but tribal bodies and civil society organisations had objected to reservation for women and tax on land and property thereby delaying the polls.
In total, there were five hundred twenty-three contestants from eleven political parties. An additional sixty-four candidates won unopposed across various civic bodies. NDPP; BJP; Congress; Naga Peoples’ Front (NPF); Rising People’s Party; Republican Party of India (Ramdas Athawale); JD(U); Lok Janshakti Party; Nationalist Congress Party, National People’s Party are among those contesting.
No election was held in fourteen ULBs located in six eastern districts as tribal bodies boycotted them. There are thirty-nine town councils in Nagaland with no election taking place at fourteen urban local bodies situated across six eastern districts due to boycott by Tribal Bodies.
The Eastern Nagaland Peoples Organization (ENPO), an umbrella organization representing seven major tribes of six eastern districts, has been pushing for a separate ‘Frontier Nagaland Territory’, alleging that the area has been ignored for decades.
Fifty-nine candidates from the area filed nominations but they were all forced to withdraw as per demands of the tribal bodies.
