The State Election Commissioner on Saturday officially declared the dates for the local body elections across the State.
As per the schedule, the Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTC) and Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (MPTC) will go to polls on March 21, while elections for municipalities and municipal corporations will be held on March 23. Elections for gram panchayats will be held in two phases on March 27 and 29.
Nearly 18 lakh voters will be casting their franchise for the ZPTC and MPTC polls in Viskhapatnam district.
Schedule
As per the schedule, March 9, 10 and 11 have been allotted for filing of nominations for ZPTC and MPTC elections. Applications will be scrutinised on March 12, while March 13 has been fixed for filing appeals. Withdrawal of nominations can be filed on March 14. After the polls on March 21, counting will be held on March 24 and results will be declared on the same day, said District Collector V. Vinay Chand.
Voting will begin at 7 a.m. and will go on till 5 p.m. Around 15,000 police personnel will be deployed for election duty.
The model code of conduct is already in force in the rural areas, and the campaign will begin from March 14 and end by 5 p.m. on March 19 (48 hours before the polling), said ZPTC CEO Nagarjuna Sagar.
In Visakhapatnam district, there are about 652 MPTC seats of which 160 have been reserved for STs, 45 for SCs, 173 for BCs and 274 for unreserved, while 337 seats have been reserved for women.
In ZPTCs, there are 39 seats of which 12 have been reserved for STs, three for SCs, nine for BCs and 15 for unreserved. Twenty seats have been reserved for women.
Indirect elections to 39 MPPs, ZP chairperson and vice-chairperson and co-opted members will be held on March 30.
“The election will be held on ballot papers and about 2,077 polling booths will be set up in the district. They will be monitored by 39 returning officers. This apart, there will be separate teams for model code of conduct, flying squads and static teams in each mandal,” Mr. Nagarjuna said.
Panchayat elections
Panchayat elections will be held in two phases. On March 27, 19 panchayats will go to polls and on March 29, the remaining 20 will go to polls.
Nominations will be accepted from March 17 to 19 for the first phase and from March 19 to 21 for the second phase. Counting will be done and results declared on the same day of polling.
District Panchayat Officer R. Govind Rao said that panchayats in Agency and sensitive areas will go to polls in the second phase.
The panchayat elections will contain two ballot papers — one for sarpanch and the other for ward members. Elections will be held for 969 panchayats and 9,542 ward members. There will be around 9,618 polling stations spread across the 39 mandals.
Sensitive booths
Of 2,077 polling stations for ZPTC elections, the Collector said that 709 have been identified as sensitive while 597 have been marked as hyper-sensitive.
On the security arrangements, Mr. Vinay Chand said that adequate forces will be stationed and discussions are on with the Superintendent of Police to ensure that the elections are conducted in a peaceful manner.
With uncertainty still surrounding the elections to the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) due to cases pending in court, the municipal elections in the district are likely to be limited to municipalities in Yelamanchili and Narsipatnam.
As per the election schedule, the nomination date is fixed from March 11 to 13, while polls will be held on March 23. Votes will be counted and results declared on March 27.
