ITANAGAR, Dec 17 - The State Election Commission (SEC) in Arunachal Pradesh is all set to conduct the panchayat and municipal elections in the State simultaneously in a single phase on December 22.
Giving a briefing on the preparations for the local body polls, SEC Deputy Secretary Habung Lampung today stated that EVM randomization and printing of ballot papers have already been completed. He added that ballot papers were collected by the respective District Election Officers (DEOs) through their officers.
It may be mentioned here that EVMs would be used for elections to the two urban local bodies � Itanagar Municipal Corporation (IMC) and Pasighat Municipal Council (PMC), and the ballot papers for the panchayat polls.
More than 10,000 polling personnel will be deployed for conduct of free and fair elections, he said.
As per the SEC official, altogether 4,89,423 voters out of the total 7,65,005 electorate are eligible to exercise their franchise in the local body elections spread across 1,472 (out of 2,259) polling stations in the State.
The number of eligible electorate has declined as 6,500 candidates in the two-tier panchayats, including 99 for Zilla Parishads and 6,401 for Gram Panchayat seats, and five nominees in the IMC have already been declared elected unopposed.
In the panchayat, 141 ZP constituencies and 1,702 GP seats will go for polls.
There will be no elections in 110 GP seats due to either rejection of a single nomination or non-availability of candidate.
�The Commission will take a final call after the electoral process of the current phase is over,� the SEC Deputy Secretary said.
Meanwhile, the SEC has issued a notification regarding election to the 4-Hawai North ZP seat in Anjaw district, which was kept in abeyance due to legal issues, after the High Court disposed of the case, he said, adding that the polling in the seat would be held on January 11 next.
He further stated that East Siang district has the highest number of polling stations (120) where 32,699 voters are likely to exercise their democratic right, while a total of 42,286 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise for elections to 15 out of 20 wards in the IMC spread across 47 polling booths.
The SEC Deputy Secretary also stated that State Election Commissioner Hage Kojeen would conduct a video-conferencing with all the poll observers, DCs and SPs tomorrow to review the overall preparedness of the electoral process.
On being asked about any violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), the Deputy Secretary told that so far, no major cases of MCC violation have been reported to the Commission.
It may be mentioned that elections to the Vijaynagar ZP constituency seat, along with 40 GPM seats in Changlang district, have been kept in abeyance by the Commission due to various reasons.
