BHUBANESWAR: The three-tier panchayat elections in the state will be held in five phases starting February 16 amid strict adherence of Covid guidelines, state election commissioner Aditya Prasad Padhi announced on Tuesday.
Elections will be held with one day gap between each phase on February 16, 18, 20, 22 and 24.
For the first time, there will be central counting at block headquarters level for three days starting February 26.
As many as 2.79 crore rural voters will exercise their franchise in the three-tier panchayat polls to elect 91,913 ward members, 6,794 Sarpanches, 6,793 panchayat samiti members and 853 zilla parishad members.
With announcement of the poll dates, the model code of conduct came into effect which will remain in force till the completion of counting of votes i.e. February 28.
The notification for the elections will be released on January 13 whereas the nomination filing process will start from January 17 and continue till January 21.
Scrutiny of nominations will be held on January 22 while candidates can withdraw nominations up to January 25.
The final list of contesting candidates will be published on January 25.
“The state election commission has issued detailed guidelines for a Covid-safe election. No road shows, padayatra, cycle/bike/vehicle rally or procession will be allowed during the panchayat election. No physical rally of political parties or probable candidates or any other group related to election will be allowed,” said Padhi.
Only door-to-door campaign with participation of maximum five people including the candidate is allowed. The poll panel has also advised the political parties and candidates to conduct their campaigns as much as possible through digital, virtual, media platforms and mobile-based modes, said Padhi.
Restrictions have also been imposed on victory processions after the counting.
Padhi added that if a candidate or a political party violates Covid-19 guidelines, they are liable for prosecution under Section 51 of 60 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
To a query on safety of polling personnel, Padhi said only fully vaccinated officials will be engaged in poll duty. Around 1.5 lakh officials will be engaged in the entire process. Similarly, only fully vaccinated people after negative RT-PCR or rapid antigen tests will be allowed into the counting centres.
Over 200 platoons of police personnel will be engaged in the entire election process while budget provision of Rs 142 crore has been made for the purpose.
