Bhubaneswar: The Panchayat elections in Odisha are likely to be delayed and the State Election Commission (SEC) is planning to issue the poll notification only after completion of the 2027 Census operation.
While the SEC plans to complete the Panchayat elections by June 2027, the notification for the polls is expected to be issued in April next year when the census exercise concludes.
Stepping up preparations for the rural polls, the Commission has already held discussions with Revenue Divisional Commissioners (RDCs) and District Collectors. A meeting with district officials is slated to be held via video conference on July 21 to take stock of the progress made so far.
This time, the Commission is set to undertake a door-to-door survey ahead of the elections to make the electoral pro
cess more efficient. Along with this, a booth-wise survey will be conducted to detect errors in the voter lists.
Speaking about the preparations, SEC Secretary Santosh Kumar Dash said the survey will ensure improvement in the accuracy of electoral rolls, make voting easier for people, and boost voter participation.
Stating that Panchayat elections will be slightly delayed this time, he said the census work will continue till the first week of March. It is not possible to conduct elections until the work is completed as the same personnel engaged in the census operation are likely to be deployed for Panchayat polls, he said.
Earlier, Panchayat elections were mostly held in the month of February. But this time, both Panchayat and Municipal elections will be held in April-May 2027”, he stated.
Noting that the SIR process is almost complete, he said the final voter list is expected to be out in September after which the commission will conduct a booth-wise survey.
Stating that voters from multiple localities are currently assigned to the same polling booth, which causes inconvenience and leads to low turnout, he said the survey is aimed to rectify such issues and create an updated and error-free electoral database. After the survey, the Commission will release booth-wise voter lists.
This will ensure that voters listed under a booth belong to the same geographical area and vote at their designated polling station.