The two main Opposition parties in Sikkim — the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) and the Citizen Action Party (CAP) — will boycott the municipal elections scheduled for April 24, alleging an undemocratic environment created by the ruling Sikkim Krantikara Morcha (SKM).

SDF senior vice president and spokesperson Krishna Kharel told reporters on Friday that the proposed municipal election was “unconstitutional” and raised concerns over what he termed unequal seat reservation in the electoral process, which was why the party was sitting out of the urban local body elections.

Kharel said with the formal announcement of the elections, several “serious lapses” had come to light, particularly in the matter of seat reservations, which the SDF strongly condemned.

He said a review of the overall reservation framework revealed that the seat allocation had not been carried out in proportion to population, raising serious concerns about fairness and constitutional adherence.

“According to the constitution, the reservation must be done in proportion to the population. In contradiction, discrepancies are evident across multiple categories. For example, OBC (central list), which constitutes 25.64 per cent of the population according to the last census, were proportionally to be given 17–18 seats; however, only eight seats have been reserved. Similarly, the OBC (state list), with a population share of 21.89 per cent, should have received around 14 seats. Instead, they have been allotted only 11 seats,” he said.

Kharel claimed that those inconsistencies clearly indicated that the reservation framework for the upcoming municipal elections had not been structured in accordance with population proportions, thereby undermining the constitutional principles of equitable representation.

The SDF senior vice president added that the demographic composition of specific areas had not been considered while determining reservations. For instance, in areas with a significant presence of OBC (central list) communities, reservations have been assigned to other categories, raising concerns about the basis of such decisions.

The CAP on Thursday announced that it would boycott the urban local body (ULB) elections in Sikkim, while extending support to “qualified and capable” independent candidates across all 63 wards.

Addressing a press conference in Gangtok, CAP spokesperson Albert Gurung said that the decision was taken in protest against the SKM’s move to conduct the municipal elections on a partisan basis, which he termed a “betrayal” of SKM’s 2019 manifesto promise.

Chief minister PS Tamang (Golay) had on Tuesday met SKM’s candidates for the civic polls, and urged them to work collectively with humility and integrity.

The SKM supremo said the party would extend full support to the candidates throughout their electoral journey, and advised them to complete the nomination formalities at the earliest.