Odisha Panchayat Polls To Be Held In Five Phases From 16th February: SEC

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha State Election Commission has declared the dates for the three-tier Panchayatiraj elections in the state. The polls will be held in five phases starting from 16th February. With this, the model code of conduct has come into effect from today and will continue till the end of the election process on 28th February. State Election Commissioner Aditya Prasad Padhi announced the dates in a press briefing today. The notice for elections will be issued on the 13th of this month.

The Panchayat elections will be held in five phases on 16th , 18th , 20th , 22nd and 24th February. The counting of votes will be held centrally at the block level. Voting will be held from morning 7 am to 1 pm. The counting of votes will be held in three phases on 26th , 27th and 28th February.

The polls will be held strictly adhering to the Covid-19 norms. The elections guidelines have been issued keeping in view the guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India recently. There will be no rallies and road shows. Candidates can go for door to door campaigning with only five members.

The Three Panchayat Polls will be held to elect 91,913 Panchayat ward members, 6794 Sarapanchas, 6793 Panchayat Samiti members and 853 Zilla Parishad members. In total, 27935520 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise during the polls. Nominations forms of the polls will be issued 17th January to 21st January. Scrutiny of nominations will be held on the 22nd January. Candidates can withdraw their nominations upto 25th January. The final list of contesting candidates will be published on the 25th January.

The indirect elections for Naib Sarapanch, Chairman and Zilla Parishad President will be held on 11th, 12th and 13th March 2022 respectively. The Elections for Vice-Chairman and Vice-Presidents will be 23rd and 25th March 2022.