Over 83% turnout in Mizoram tribal autonomous body polls

Aizawl: Over 83.77 per cent of the 42,342 voters on Thursday cast their ballots to elect 25 members of the Mara Autonomous District Council (MADC) in Mizoram's Siaha district, officials said.

Election officials said that maintaining previous trends, there was no untoward incident reported in the elections to the MADC, one of the three tribal autonomous district councils in Mizoram.

In all, 85 candidates are contesting the tribal autonomous body polls, which are seeing a multi-cornered contest, as the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF), the BJP, the opposition Congress and the Zoram People's Movement (ZPM) have put up candidates.

The MNF, an ally of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, has put up candidates in all the 25 seats while the BJP and the Congress have fielded 24 and 23 candidates, respectively. The ZPM is contesting in eight seats.

Ahead of the next year's elections in the 40-member Mizoram Assembly, the MADC elections in Siaha district are crucial for both the ruling and the opposition parties.

In the last elections in May 2017, the Congress secured 17 seats in the 25-member council but in 2019, 15 Congress members and a few members of Mara Democratic Front joined the BJP facilitating the saffron party to govern the autonomous body. In all, 42,342 people, including 21, 969 women, were eligible voters in the council area.

Counting of votes will be held on May 9.