TURA, Feb 2: A few days after the A’chik Association for Protection of Environment (AAPE) urged political parties from Garo Hills not to give party tickets to non-tribals in the upcoming Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) MDC elections, the Garo Students’ Union Eastern Zone, while making the same demand on Tuesday, warned that non-tribal independent candidates should not be allowed to file nominations.
“The GSU would like to reiterate that GHADC is purely for tribal people (Garos) hence no non-tribal should try to stand for election to this tribal-centric institution and no party should give party tickets to them. Non-tribals have no business in this institution as it belongs to the Garos where it deals only with the tribal-related issues viz., land, customs, traditions and its cultural heritages. They have nothing to do with all of these and they have no right to rule in the GHADC,” President of the GSU, Saljrang Tengrik R Marak, said in a statement.
Marak requested all political parties to respect the ideology of the district council stating that allotting party tickets to non-tribals and allowing them to rule in the GHADC is nothing but knowingly enslaving ourselves.
“GHADC belongs to Garos and only Garo candidates must be allowed to stand for election to this august house,” Marak said, warning that it would strongly oppose the allotment of party tickets to any non-tribal.
It may be recalled that the state Cabinet had recently decided to hold the GHADC elections on April 9.
The GHADC’s five-year term expired on October 18 last year but the state government decided to defer the polls in view of the COVID-19 pandemic and put the House under the Administrator’s Rule. Polling would be held on April 9 from 7 am to 4 pm. The counting of votes will take place on April 14. The draft electoral rolls will be published on February 4, while February 18 will be the last date for filing of claims and objections.
