‘Cannot Be Deferred,’ Says SEC, Announcing Panchayat Polls Schedule In Odisha; Check Dates, Guidelines

Bhubaneswar: The three-tier panchayat elections in Odisha will be held in five phases from February 16 to 24.

Polling will take place on February 16, 18, 20, 22 and 24 from 7 am to 1 pm. Results will be declared on February 26, 27 and 28. Counting will be done at the block level, not booths.

State Election Commissioner (SEC) Aditya Prasad Padhi announced the schedule for the elections at a press conference here on Tuesday.

Padhi said the elections need to be held to fulfil Constitutional obligations. “We cannot defer it as new COVID variant can also surface in the future,” he said. “As far as possible we aim to have safe elections. It is as important as having free and fair elections,” he added.

Padhi also announced guidelines for the elections to 853 zilla parishads, 6,794 panchayats and 91,913 wards. Over 2.79 crore voters will exercise their franchise.

With the announcement of the dates, the Model Code of Conduct comes into force from Tuesday till February 28, he said.

The other key dates are: notification for the polls will be released on January 13. The final list of candidates will be out on January 25. Candidates will file their nominations from January 17 and 21, while scrutiny of papers will be done on January 22. The last date for withdrawal of nomination papers is January 25, the SEC informed.

Filing of affidavits by candidates has been made mandatory during nomination and filing false affidavits is a punishable offence. No rallies and public meetings will be allowed because of the COVID-19 third wave. Only door-to-door and virtual campaigning will be allowed, the SEC said.

The polls will be held in strict adherence to COVID protocols. The SEC said that only five persons will be allowed for door-to-door campaigning, there will be no victory rallies and only vaccinated and COVID-19 negative people will be allowed inside counting centres.

Around 200 platoons of police force, similar to the 2017 rural polls, will be deployed for the smooth conduct of the polls.

A call centre will function from 9 am to 6 pm with toll free number 1800-345-7787. There will be a Control Room at the poll commission’s office (0674-2573494) functioning from 8 am to 9 pm.

The polls will not be held in seven GPs this time as they have been included in NACs — four from Remuna in Balasore, two from Odanga in Nayagarh and one from Bijepur in Bargarh district.

Elections for Naib Sarpanch will be held on March 11, for Panchayat Samiti Chairman on March 12 and Zilla Parishad Chairman on March 13, the SEC said.