Bhubaneswar: The State Election Commission (SEC) has set the ball rolling for the much awaited Urban election in the State.
The elections to the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) have not been conducted since 2018 even as their tenures expired three years ago. Now, Administrators are looking after development and daily affairs of the civic bodies.
The delimitation and reservation of seats in the ULBs have been completed. The polls will be held in three municipal corporations, 48 municipalities and 59 notified area councils (NACs).
”All the district Collectors have submitted the delimitation and reservation lists to the commission, and the state government has also furnished the delimitation and reservation lists of three municipal corporations. Therefore, the process of holding the ULB polls can be started now,” State Election Commissioner Aditya Prasad Padhi said.
Of the total 1,756 wards, 668 wards are unreserved while 122 are reserved for SCs, 171 for SC women, 49 for STs and 133 for ST women. A total of 613 wards have been reserved for women.
He said that the SEC will soon carry out revision of the electoral roll. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has revised the electoral roll on January 1, 2022 and sent the Assembly seat-wise roll on January 5, based on which the roll for the ULBs will be revised, Mr.Padhi informed.
A notification issued by the Commission stated that the primary voter list will be published on February 10 and objections will be invited for six days from February 11 to 16. The final electoral roll will be published on February 24 and submitted to SEC after four days on February 28.
Mr.Padhi said that there will be no addition of new names to the voter list as the list has been revised on January 1 and corrections will be made, if required.
On January 31 last year, the Housing and Urban Development Department had issued the final list of reservations for offices of chairpersons of municipalities and NACs. A total of 54 chairperson posts in these urban local bodies have been reserved for women.
The Mayor post in Bhubaneswar and Berhampur Municipal Corporations have been reserved for women candidates while it is unreserved in Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC).
Elections to the ULBs have not been conducted since 2018 and SEC is likely to announce the dates in March after the panchayat polls which is scheduled to be held in five phases between February 16 and 24. The counting and result declaration of the rural polls will be made on February 26, 27 and 28.
