Tripura tribal council polls: Vote counting on Wednesday

The votes for the 30-member Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) would be counted on Wednesday, an official said here on Tuesday.

The election was held on Sunday in the politically important TTAADC, which has jurisdiction over two-thirds of Tripura's 10,491.69 square km territory.

Around 84 percent of the 758,554 electors, mostly tribals, cast their votes. Tribals constitute a third of Tripura's 3.7 million population.

"The counting of ballots would be held in 16 sub-divisional headquarters across the state. By afternoon, all the results would be known," state election commission secretary Tamal Majumder told reporters.

Central para-military forces have been deployed in and around the counting centres, he added.

Of the 175 candidates contesting the elections for the TTAADC, 10 are women.

Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were used for the first time in the TTAADC polls.

Set up in 1982, to protect and safeguard the political, economic and cultural interests of tribals, the 30-member TTAADC has 28 seats filled through direct election while two members are nominated by the government.

With more tribal autonomy being a key election issue, polls for the TTAADC, a constitutional body viewed as almost equal to the state assembly, are a significant political event in Left-ruled Tripura.