18th Lok Sabha Election Updates : First-phase elections for the 18th Lok Sabha were held on Friday, with 102 constituencies from 21 states and union territories participating. Of these, Nagaland was one of the places where elections were held. The election was mostly calm, and the approximate voter participation was 56.91%; this is a considerable decrease from the 83% turnout that was reported in the 2019 elections. This is due to the nearly nonexistent voting in Eastern Nagaland, which consists of six districts: Mon, Longleng, Kiphire, Shamator, Tuensang, and Noklak.
The “Chenmoho Resolution” called for voting to be abstained from by the apex body of the seven Naga tribes in Eastern Nagaland, the Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation (ENPO). The resolution made a compelling case for the region’s people not to cast ballots in either the national or state elections unless the Center accedes to the demand for Frontier Nagaland.
ENPO took some time to make this choice. The group had already made the decision to boycott the state assembly elections held the previous year. But the prompt intervention of Union Home Minister Amit Shah later compelled the ENPO to reverse its judgment. It was promised to the organization that their request would be taken up following the state elections. There was some movement in this direction on the part of the Center following the state elections. But the demand for Frontier Nagaland never materialized, therefore the ENPO had to withdraw from the election.
The People’s Democratic Alliance government, led by Neiphiu Rio and made up of Rio’s Nationalist Progressive People’s Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, which also has a deputy chief minister, was held accountable by the ENPO for failing to provide feedback on the draft Memorandum of Settlement for Frontier Nagaland that was sent by the Center.
In the end, the greatest democratic election in history was severely shaken by the lack of participation from voters in the 20 assembly constituencies in Eastern Nagaland. After all, frequent elections, in which citizens cast ballots to express their opinions, improve democracies. However, this did not occur in the 20 assembly constituencies in Eastern Nagaland; this may have been prevented if the ENPO’s push for Frontier Nagaland had been widely publicized outside the state’s boundaries, especially in New Delhi’s political circles.