Reported by Mrinal Kanti Banik

Agartala: Voting in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) Village Committee elections recorded a turnout of 50.49% by 1 pm on Monday, State Election Commission (SEC) Secretary Anurag Sen said.

Polling began in the morning and is scheduled to continue until 4 pm. The elections are being held after nearly a decade and cover 2,950 contested seats across 587 Village Committees, with around 6.65 lakh voters eligible to vote in the constituencies where contests are taking place.

Of the 4,597 total seats, 1,644 have already been filled unopposed, while three seats remain vacant as no nominations were received. A total of 8,176 candidates are contesting the seats going to the polls.

Voting is being conducted at 1,095 polling stations using ballot papers. Four colours -white, light pink, light green and light blue have been assigned to ballot papers for different seats.

Sen said security and communication arrangements were adequate at most polling stations. However, he acknowledged that connectivity problems had been reported at a small number of locations, including Silachari and Karbook. Telephone connectivity was available at most of the affected locations to maintain communication, he said.

The SEC has deployed 74 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) along with personnel from the Tripura Police and Tripura State Rifles. Additional security measures have been implemented at polling stations classified as highly sensitive.

The previous Village Committee elections were conducted in 2016, while the tenure of the elected bodies ended in March 2021. The SEC had earlier cited the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent legal complications as reasons for the delay in holding fresh elections.

The elections are being conducted in accordance with Supreme Court directions.

Polling personnel and election materials were transported to their designated stations on Sunday, with sector officers overseeing the movement of teams, ballot boxes and other election materials.

The final electoral roll contains 9,61,977 voters, comprising 4,82,041 men, 4,79,930 women and six third-gender voters. However, only electors in constituencies where candidates are contesting are voting on Monday.

Counting of votes will take place on October 5, after which the results will determine the composition of the Village Committees, the grassroots-level local governance bodies in the TTAADC areas.