Elections in Nagaland never fail to weave a myriad of extraordinary events and happenings in the state since the first elections were announced after the statehood was inaugurated on December 1, 1963. A people considered savage and barbaric by many non-Nagas, who had very strong village setups either in the form of democratic councils or as chieftainships that were gradually seeing an evolving tribal setups were suddenly exposed to the ways and means of the secret ballot. The Nagas were quite new to the secret ballot and may have not fully understood the significance and the power of one’s franchise because the Nagas never had to fight for suffrage by any section of the people unlike many in other places.
The story of the universal suffrage had come a long way since the time of the Greeks where only males and with certain specified qualifications had a say in the public meetings and could vote. Universal suffrage or franchise is the right to vote irrespective of race, sex, creed, wealth, or social status. However it was only after a long fight by those excluded like women, slaves, commoners, persons of different ethnicity etc. that the universal suffrage in the present form took shape. It took many years which also saw violent protests and tragic incidents in some cases to finally have universal franchise. In some countries it was as late as the late twentieth century that the universal suffrage was granted. Some countries still do not have universal suffrage.
When the first elections were announced in Nagaland just a few days after achieving statehood it seemed the government of India was in a hurry to start the electoral process. Moreover with the media both in the country and the world already a bit curious of the situation at ground level, the government would have wanted to play the publicity card to show that popular democratic process had already started to function in the nascent state of Nagaland. Hokishe Sema a member of the Interim Body in his book later in life stated against the early electoral process thus, “I strongly felt that it was too early for the Nagas to fight elections on the basis of political parties in the face of the tribal divisions and the Underground problems. The system of tribal representatives was doing very well and it could have continued”.
However, by the next assembly elections in 1968, it is noted that the Nagas were fully ensnared in divisive politics based on ones clan, region, village and also tribe fuelled more by the Indo-Naga political issue. The true understanding of the power of the vote also comes along with the understanding of its associated responsibilities and how not to misuse that power. The Naga route to electoral process was too sudden for many to comprehend such ideals. Although the traditional practices had very strict codes especially in the administration of the village and its society, the new system was free for all with the new rules quite foreign. Recently a village did not support the protests against the ULB elections called by the tribe organisations though the tribes indicated that the municipal Act in its current form infringes on the Naga/village rights. However that same village passed a resolution to allow only one candidate from its village in the forthcoming elections, which goes against the people representation Act. A petition filed against that order by some individuals of the village in the High Court was received by protests against the petitioners stating that it was ‘demolishing and insulting our age old Naga customs and traditions’. For the Nagas at present, there is no sin attached to breaking the “Indian law” as long as the village customs and traditions are strictly adhered to. In its 54th year of statehood, the people of Nagaland is still unable to come out of this quagmire due to what Nagas refer to as the “ism-politics” for power and want of money.
