The Nagaland Cabinet has made an appeal to the Eastern Nagaland People’s Organization (ENPO) and its constituent bodies to participate in the upcoming elections to the Municipal and Town Councils to be conducted on 26th June 2024. The Cabinet pointed out that the polls are to be held in the State “in the larger interest of the public and their welfare” with 33% Women’s Reservation after a long legal battle in the Supreme Court of India.

Spokesperson of Nagaland Government and Minister for Power, K G Kenye, conveyed this during a press conference today after the Cabinet convened to discuss the issue of the ‘Public Emergency’ declared by the ENPO across the Eastern Nagaland region and also the call to abstain from the Urban Local Bodies elections.

A day earlier, the ENPO had written to the State Election Commissioner to inform of its resolution to not participate in the forthcoming polls in protest of the Ministry of Home Affairs not finalising on the establishment of Frontier Nagaland Territory as promised.

The ENPO had also abstained from voting in the 18th Lok Sabha elections conducted on 19th April 2024 recording ‘NIL’ voter turnout in the districts of Mon, Tuensang, Kiphire, Shamator, Noklak and Longleng.

During the press conference, Minister Kenye also provided a timeline on the events that has taken place with regard to FNT since December 2023 leading to this day.

18th December 2023: Union Home Minister Amit Shah handed over a draft Memorandum of Settlement to Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio in New Delhi and on 21 December 2023, the CM handed over the draft copy to Paiwang Konyak, Minister for Health and Family Welfare and Convener of Eastern Nagaland Legislators’ Union (ENLU) with a request to discuss with ENPO leaders.

17th January 2024: A Joint Consultative Meeting of the ENPO, federating tribal bodies, frontal organizations and senior leaders of the six Districts of Eastern Nagaland was held at ENPO Headquarters, Tuensang, in which the leaders expressed their resentment over the delayed settlement of the Frontier Nagaland Territory issue and reaffirmed their stand ‘to reject the offer of Autonomous Council other than the creation of Frontier Nagaland Territory’.

14th February 2024: A meeting was convened by Eastern Nagaland Gazetted Officers Association (ENGOA) at Tourist Lodge, Dimapur, where the members of ENLU wanted to discuss the draft paper on FNT but ENPO leaders refused to table the draft copy in the meeting stating that any draft sent by MHA through any party other than ENPO would not be accepted or discussed.

23rd February 2024: Joint Consultative Meeting of the ENPO, federating tribal bodies, frontal organizations and senior leaders of the six Districts of Eastern Nagaland was held at Chenmoho Village, Mon district, Nagaland where it was unanimously resolved not to participate in any Central and State elections.

5th March 2024: Joint Coordination Meeting was held at Hotel Cedar, Dimapur where the ENPO and its frontal organizations adopted six resolutions and declared a state of ‘Public Emergency’ all over Eastern Nagaland and strictly resolved to implement Chenmoho Resolution of not participating in any Central and State Elections. Further, the ENPO declared a ‘dawn to dusk bandh’ all over Eastern Nagaland on 8th March 2024 and further continuation of total bandh in the six ENPO districts was announced on 11th March 2024.

12th March 2024: All Eastern Nagaland Legislators and Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) were summoned to Tuensang by noon of 14th March 2024 by the Eastern Nagaland Students’ Federation (ENSF) and during the total bandh, enforcers burning effigies of the Prime Minister of India, the Union Home Minister and the National BJP President of India at Main Bazar Police Point, Tuensang Town on 13th March 2024.

During the 2nd fortnight of March 2024, the ENPO convened several rounds of consultations and reiterated its stand to uphold the Chenmoho resolution. On 20th March 2024, the ENPO organization confirmed its intention to abstain from the upcoming Lok Sabha Polls scheduled on 19th April 2024.

21st March 2024: Chief Minister of Nagaland appealed to the ENPO to refrain from boycotting the electoral process while emphasizing the indispensability of dialogue and cooperation in resolving differences and further stressed on the importance of inclusive dialogue between the elected representatives and ENPO.

28th March 2024: The ENPO urged ENLU to issue a letter of support to ENPO for the creation of FNT by the Government of India which shall not be under Sixth Schedule.

30th March 2024: In the light of the above, a joint meeting of the Cabinet and the Members of ENLU was held and an earnest appeal was made to the ENPO and its constituents to participate in the Parliamentary Elections scheduled on 19th April 2024 and fulfil the democratic duty for the greater benefit of the region and its constituents.

1st April 2024: ENPO, in a letter to the Election Commission of India through the CEO Nagaland, expressed its intention to abstain from participation in the Lok Sabha elections, 2024. ENPO further rejected the Chief Minister’s appeal not to abstain from Lok Sabha elections.

4th April 2024:  Cabinet Meeting was held where office bearers and senior officials of the ENGOA were called for discussion on the issue of ENPO abstention from participation in the election. The Cabinet sought the help of ENGOA to engage ENPO and other sister organisations to make them withdraw their call to refrain from Parliamentary elections. Instructions were also issued to District Administration to sensitize all public authorities about their bounden duties and legal and penal provisions in this regard.

17h April 2024: The ENPO urged the 20 MLAs from the Eastern Nagaland Districts to stay indoors to prevent any untoward incident to honour the decision by the citizens of Eastern Nagaland to abstain from participating in the Lok Sabha elections and sought their understanding and support regarding a matter of utmost importance to their community.

19th April 2024: Under the directives of ENPO the offices of the various Students’ Unions of the ENPO area deployed the volunteers near the houses of all Ministers/ Advisors/ MLAs during the polling day thus preventing them from exercising their franchise and restrained the movement of all the residents of that area which resulted in zero polling in all six districts of the Eastern Nagaland. All these acts are in violations of Peoples right to vote and participate in the democratic process as enshrined in the Constitution of India, the Cabinet said.

It also mentioned that despite several appeals made by Honourable Chief Minister, Honourable Legislators of the Eastern Nagaland and the State Cabinet, the ENPO continued with their resolve to abstain from the electoral process which resulted in zero voter turn out in the six Eastern Nagaland Districts.

Moreover, the Nagaland Cabinet maintained that since the elected representatives from the Eastern Nagaland Districts were not invited/consulted by the ENPO on abstaining from the elections, the Legislators from Eastern Nagaland were not part of any decision/ resolution regarding abstention of the Central and State Elections.