State Election Commissioner Aditya Prasad Padhi announced the dates of Panchayat elections
BHUBANESWAR: Three-tier panchayat elections in the state will be held in five phases starting from February 16, state election commissioner Aditya Prasad Padhi announced on Tuesday.
Elections will be held on February 16, 18, 20, 22 and 24 with a gap of one day between each phase.
For the first time, from February 26, central vote counting will be held at the block headquarters level for three days.
2.79 crore rural voters will exercise their franchise in the three-tier panchayat elections to elect 91,913 ward members, 6,794 sarpanches, 6,793 panchayat samiti members and 853 zilla parishad members.
With the announcement of the election dates, the model code of conduct came into force, which will remain in force till the completion of the counting of votes, ie, February 28.
The notification for the elections will be issued on January 13 while the process of filing nominations will start from January 17 and will continue till January 21.
Scrutiny of nominations will take place on January 22 while candidates can withdraw their nominations till January 25.
The final list of contesting candidates will be published on January 25.
“The State Election Commission has issued detailed guidelines for a COVID-safe election. Road shows, padyatras, cycle/bike/vehicle rallies or processions will not be allowed during Panchayat elections. No physical rally of political parties or potential candidates or any other group related to the election will be allowed,” Padhi said.
Only door-to-door campaign is allowed with the participation of a maximum of five people including the candidate. Padhi said the poll panel has advised political parties and candidates to conduct their campaigns through digital, virtual, media platforms and mobile-based modes as much as possible.
Victory processions have also been banned after counting of votes.
Padhi said that if any candidate or political party violates the COVID-19 guidelines, they are liable to be prosecuted under section 51 of 60 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
When asked about the safety of the polling personnel, Padhi said only fully vaccinated officers would be engaged in voting. About 1.5 lakh officers will be engaged in this whole process. Similarly, only fully vaccinated people will be allowed to go to the counting centers after a negative RT-PCR or rapid antigen test.
More than 200 platoon police personnel will be engaged in the entire election process, while a budget provision of Rs 142 crore has been made for this.
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