Nicobarese tribal councils oppose draft poll rules, say traditional system aligns with democratic values

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription

The View From India Looking at World Affairs from the Indian perspective.

First Day First Show News and reviews from the world of cinema and streaming.

Today's Cache Your download of the top 5 technology stories of the day.

Data Point Decoding the headlines with facts, figures, and numbers

Health Matters Ramya Kannan writes to you on getting to good health, and staying there

The Hindu On Books Books of the week, reviews, excerpts, new titles and features.

This photograph taken on March 26, 2026 shows a board marking a tribal reserve area on the outskirts of Campbell Bay at Great Nicobar island. | Photo Credit: AFP

Nicobarese tribal councils from three different island groups have written to the local administration turning down the idea of Election Commission-conducted polls to their self-governance system, saying it could introduce “election rivalry, division, and conflict” in their society. The councils said the existing forms of self-governance “more closely align with democratic values” and said a new system will interfere with their existing ways which are “traditional, time-tested, and consensus-based” and in practice for thousands of years.

This comes even as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (A&NI) administration on Wednesday notified a public meeting on June 30 in Sri Vijaya Puram to discuss the draft rules for elections to Nicobarese tribal councils.

The tribal councils in Little and Great Nicobar, Kamorta (Nancowry), and Katchal Island have written detailed objections to the draft rules published by the A&NI administration last month. They have sought the withdrawal of this draft.

The draft rules aimed to reorganise Nicobarese villages into constituencies that would be represented by elected leaders, who would then constitute a larger tribal council. It would involve delimitation, preparation of voter rolls, and reservation of leadership positions for women. The draft prescribes five-yearly elections to the village councils and tribal councils. They provided for conducting the polls, the structure of the new representative system, the methodology of delimitation, the rules for candidature, nomination, and withdrawal, their duties and responsibilities, and the broader administrative set-up for conducting these elections.

These draft rules were notified on May 15 under a 2009 Presidential Regulation, which intended to bring “greater autonomy” to the Nicobarese and also gave the district administration an absolute veto