Odisha SEC Announces Dates For Elections To Urban Civic Bodies

Bhubaneswar: The State Election Commission (SEC) on Friday announced the dates for elections to urban local bodies (ULBs) in the state.

As per the SEC announcement, the elections will be held in 106 ULBs including 3 municipal corporations, 47 municipalities and 59 NACs on March 24.

The nominations for different posts will be filed between March 2 and 7. While the scrutiny will be made on March 9, the last date of withdrawal of nominations is March 14. The counting of votes will be held on March 26.

The elections will be held for 1,731 wards in municipalities and NACs for which 3,030 booths will be set up. More than 27 lakh voters can exercise their franchise in the elections to municipalities and NACs.

Similarly, the elections will be conducted for total 168 wards in 1,407 booths of three municipal corporations. An estimated 14.26 voters are eligible to cast their votes in this election.

There are 67 wards and 705 booths in Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), 59 wards and 452 booths in Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) and 42 wards and 250 booths in Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC).

The term of BeMC has completed in September, 2018 while that of BMC in January, 2019 and CMC in February, 2019.

The Commission also announced that there will be NOTA option in the ULB elections for the first time.

In another first, the election to the posts of chairperson and mayor will be held directly this time. For this purpose, there will be two electronic voting machines (EVMs) in separate compartments in each booth.

While one EVM will be used to cast for councillor and corporator posts, the other will be meant for chairperson and mayor election. Pink ballot paper will be used for voting for councillor and corporator posts and yellow colour for chairperson and mayor pots, the Commission said.