As many as 669 candidates, including 238 women, have filed their nominations for the much-expected urban local body (ULB) elections in Nagaland to be held on June 26, officials said on Wednesday.
After more than 20 years, elections for the three municipal councils and 36 town councils will be held in the state amid the vote boycott call given by the Eastern Nagaland Peoples’ Organisation (ENPO).
Officials in the State Election Commission (SEC) said on Wednesday that the scrutiny of nomination papers will take place on Thursday with June 20 as the last date for withdrawing candidatures.
Importantly, the upcoming local body polls are the first-ever municipal elections in the state to be held with 33 per cent reservation for women.
The government took initiatives several times in the past to hold the ULB polls, but objections from the tribal bodies and civil society organisations against the reservation for women and the tax on land and properties had held back the polls.
The elections were finally announced following the intervention of the Supreme Court.
Municipal elections in Nagaland were last held in 2004, and the terms of the civic bodies ended in 2009-10.
Meanwhile, ENPO, the influential Naga body, has already announced to boycott the June 26 civic polls, and urged the people of the six eastern Nagaland districts to abstain from voting.
Governor La Ganesan, the state government, the State Election Commission, and various other authorities have separately appealed to the ENPO and the people of eastern Nagaland to participate in the polls scheduled on June 26.
The SEC also severed a show-cause notice to the ENPO, but the Naga body remains firm on its decision.
The Lok Sabha polls for the lone seat in Nagaland were held on April 19 amid a call by the ENPO to the people of the six districts to abstain from voting over its demand for a separate state.
The people in the six districts, which have over four lakh voters, remained indoors on April 19, responding to the ENPO’s call to press for its statehood demand for ‘Frontier Nagaland Territory’.
Since 2010, the ENPO has been demanding a separate ‘Frontier Nagaland Territory’, or a separate state, comprising six eastern Nagaland districts — Kiphire, Longleng, Mon, Noklak, Shamator, and Tuensang, inhabited by seven backward tribes — Chang, Khiamniungan, Konyak, Phom, Tikhir, Sangtam, and Yimkhiung.
(Northeast, Northeast News)
