Nagaland: Urban Local Bodies Election to be Conducted After Almost 2 Decades

KOHIMA: Soon after the declaration of the results of the election of the Nagaland legislative assembly and the swearing-in of the new Nagaland cabinet, the announcement has been made about the conducting of the elections for the 39 Urban Local Bodies in the state on Thursday

The State Election Commission of Nagaland announced that the polling for the 39 Urban Local Bodies of the state will be conducted on May 16. Given the very low representation of women in the legislature, the State Election Commission announced a 33 % reservation of seats for female contestants in the upcoming polls. Notably, this was the first time that the state of Nagaland will be seeing women lawmakers in their state assembly.

Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio mentioned the conduct of the polls on Tuesday during a meeting. He also highlighted the reservation for female candidates as per the directions of the Supreme Court. Following this, the State Election Commissioner of the state, T Mhabemo Yanthan announced the dates for the polling process. He mentioned that the polling will take place to constitute the three municipal councils and 36 town councils in the state of Assam.

The State Election Commissioner also released the notification for the election program. As per the schedule, the filling of nominations will begin on April 3. The last day for filling nominations is April 10. Document verification will be conducted on April 12 and 13 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is April 24. With votings to be conducted on May 16, counting will be conducted on May 19.

Elections for these Urban Local Bodies have been a long overdue process in the state. The last elections took place almost 20 years ago in 2004. The elections were postponed for two main reasons, the Naga Political Problem and the compulsory reservation for women. The same government had tried to conduct elections in 2017, which led to clashes. Two persons died and several were injured in these clashes and several government buildings including the Kohima Municipal Council office were set ablaze.

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