DDC, ULB polls on party; Panchayat non-party basis
West Pakistan Refugees to cast votes for Ist time in local polls
DDCs to have 5 years term, Model Code of Conduct comes into force
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Nov 4: The State Election Commission (SEC) today announced first-ever election to the District Development Councils (DDCs), which will form third-tier of Panchayats, and by-elections to Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in Jammu and Kashmir in eight phases from November 28 to December 19.
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The elections will see West Pakistani Refugees (WPRs) voting in a local election for the first time in Jammu and Kashmir during last 73 years following abrogation of special status of the erstwhile State which entitled them to become domiciles of the Union Territory and eligible for the voting rights. Earlier, the WPRs were entitled for voting only in Parliament elections and not in the Assembly, Panchayat and Municipal polls as they weren’t treated as state subjects.
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The elections were announced at a press conference addressed by State Election Commissioner KK Sharma along with Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Hirdesh Kumar.
The DDCs will have full term of five years while Sarpanchs, Panchs and ULB members, who will contest the by-polls, will have remaining term of five years.
The elections to DDCs and by-polls to Urban Local Bodies will be held on party-basis while the by-elections to vacancies of Sarpanchs and Panchs will be held on non-party basis.
The DDC polls and Panchayat by-polls will be held using ballot boxes and Municipal by-elections on 234 vacant seats will be held through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).
Counting of votes for the DDC elections and ULB by-polls will take place on December 22. However, counting for by-elections to Panchayats i.e. Sarpanch and Panch segments will be taken up on the day of polling.
Voting will take place from 7 am to 2 pm.
With the announcement of elections, the Model Code of Conduct has come into force, Sharma said.
As this will be the first election in Jammu and Kashmir amidst COVID-19 pandemic, the Election Commissioner has made special arrangements of postal ballots for Coronavirus-infected patients in isolation, senior citizens, physically unwell patients and staff on election duty.
There are a total of 1088 Sarpanch and 12153 Panch vacancies in Jammu and Kashmir including 935 Sarpanch and 11814 Panch in Kashmir Valley and 153 Sarpanch and 339 Panch in Jammu region.
The Election Commission has fixed expenditure limit of Rs 5 lakh for Member of DCC, Rs 1 lakh for Sarpanch and Rs 30,000 for Panch constituencies. In the Municipal by-polls, Rs 1.5 lakh has been fixed as expenditure limit for Municipal Corporation, Rs one lakh for Municipal Council and Rs 50,000 for Municipal Committee.
Majority of vacancies in the Municipal by-elections are in Kashmir division.
First notification for the elections will be issued tomorrow.
“A proper security mechanism will remain in place and all concerns have been taken into consideration,” the State Election Commissioner said.
He added that to ensure free, fair and transparent elections, General Observers will be deployed to keep close watch on every stage of electoral process He said sufficient numbers of ballot boxes have been made available for smooth conduct of elections.
There are a total of 280 Territorial Constituencies in 20 District Development Councils of Jammu and Kashmir for which election is being held. Each district has 14 segments. Since both Jammu and Kashmir divisions have 10 districts each, they have 140 Territorial segments each. The Government has reserved 33 percent seats for women and adequate number of seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
The eight phases of elections will be held on November 28, December 1, December 4, December 7, December 10, December 13, December 16 and December 19.
For first phase of election on November 28, notification will be issued on November 5 and November 12 will be last date for filing nominations, November 13 for scrutiny and November 16 for withdrawal of nominations,
For second phase of election on December 1, notification will be issued on November 7 while November 16 will be last date of filing papers, scrutiny will be held on November 17 and November 19 is last date for withdrawal of candidature.
Third phase of polling is scheduled for December 4 for which notification will be issued on November 11, the candidates can file papers till November 18, scrutiny will be held on November 19 and last date of withdrawal is November 21.
Fourth phase of election is scheduled for December 7 for which notification will be issued on November 13, the candidates can file papers till November 20, scrutiny will be held on November 21 and nominations can be withdrawn till November 23.
For fifth phase of polling which is scheduled for December 10, the notification will be issued on November 16 and last date of nominations is November 23, scrutiny will take place on November 24 and last date of withdrawal is November 26.
Sixth phase of polling will take place on December 13. For this phase, notification will be issued on November 19, last date of nomination is November 26, last date of scrutiny is November 27 while last date fort withdrawal of nominations is December 1.
For seventh phase of polling scheduled for December 16, the notification will be issued on November 21, last date for nominations is November 28, scrutiny will be held on December 1 and the candidates can withdraw their papers till December 3.
Last phase of polls i.e. eighth will be held on December 19 for which notification will be issued on November 23, last date of nominations is December 1, date of scrutiny is December 2 and last date of withdrawal is December 4.
Meanwhile, the Government has nominated the Divisional Commissioners of Jammu and Kashmir as Nodal Officers for liaisoning and communicating with concerned departments of Jammu and Kashmir and the Government of India for arranging air sorties to transport men, machinery and security personnel for smooth conduct of elections to DDCs and Panchayats.
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