Tripura civic polls on November 27 for 21 bodies; counting December 2

Tripura will vote on November 27 to elect new councils in all 21 of its urban local bodies, the State Election Commission (SEC) announced in Agartala on Friday. Votes will be counted on December 2.

The SEC issued the election notification on October 30, and returning officers were to put out public notices the same day. With the announcement, the model code of conduct has come into force with immediate effect, but only in the areas covered by the urban local bodies. It applies to political parties, candidates, public functionaries and the state government.

The poll schedule

According to the SEC press note signed by Secretary Anurag Sen, the key dates are:

• Last date for filing nominations: November 6
• Scrutiny of nominations: November 7
• Last date for withdrawal: November 10
• Polling: November 27, from 7 am to 4 pm
• Re-poll, if needed: November 30
• Counting: December 2, from 8 am
• Election process to be completed by: December 4

The commission said it fixed the dates after considering board examinations, religious festivals and the law-and-order situation. The term of the present municipal bodies ends on December 9.

Seats and voters

The 21 bodies, which include the Agartala Municipal Corporation, 13 municipal councils and seven nagar panchayats, have 345 wards between them. Nine wards are reserved for Scheduled Tribes, 80 for Scheduled Castes and 162 for women.

The Agartala Municipal Corporation alone has 51 wards, of which 25 are reserved for women. Dharmanagar has 25 wards and Udaipur 23, while Sabroom Nagar Panchayat is the smallest with nine.

There are 6,29,903 voters in municipal areas, including 3,21,743 women, 3,08,115 men and 45 third-gender electors. More than half of them, 3,62,582, are in Agartala. Voting will take place at 783 polling stations, 439 of them in the Agartala corporation area.

How the election will be run

The District Magistrates of all eight districts are the District Municipal Election Officers. In all, 23 returning officers and 81 assistant returning officers have been appointed, mostly the Sub-Divisional Magistrates and their deputies. Votes will be counted in 23 counting halls in the sub-divisions.

Polling will be held on EVMs supplied by Bharat Electronics Limited with the approval of the Election Commission of India, and first-level checking has already been done. Key stages of the process, from commissioning of the machines to counting, will be video-recorded.

Nomination forms can be downloaded from the SEC website, sec.tripura.gov.in, but must be submitted in person to the returning officer. No more than five people and two light vehicles may accompany a candidate at the time of filing.

Voters with an Elector's Photo Identity Card (EPIC) will have to show it at the booth, while those without one will be allowed alternative identity documents, for which a separate order will be issued.

Context

The last civic elections, in 2021, were held late because of the Covid-19 pandemic and covered 20 municipal bodies and 334 seats. The opposition CPI(M) has demanded adequate central forces to ensure fear-free voting, and on Thursday the Election Commission of India pushed back the Special Intensive Revision of Tripura's electoral rolls to December so it does not clash with the civic polls.