The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Municipal polls around third week of September

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Friday, Aug 19, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Municipal polls around third week of September

Staff Reporter

Electoral rolls being postponed by 6 days: SEC

HYDERABAD: The State Election Commission (SEC) is all set to conduct the polls in 11 corporations out of 14 and 97 municipalities out of 120 around the third week of September.

At a press conference here on Thursday afternoon, State Election Commissioner A.V.S. Reddy said that while originally they wanted to publish the electoral rolls on August 24, it was being postponed by about five or six days.

This was because of representations from political parties asking for time to allow more inclusions, he said.

Consequently, the electoral rolls will be published by the end of month and immediately followed by the notification for the elections. The SEC has been gearing up to conduct polls within 24 days of the notification, which means the polls will be held between September 20 and 25.

Mr. Reddy said that the Municipal Corporations of Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam and Rajahmundry would not go to polls. Likewise, the municipalities which will not go to poll include Metpalli in Karimnagar district, Gajuwaka in Greater Visakhapatnam and the 11 municipalities around the State capital which are now proposed to be part of Greater Hyderabad.

The election expenses permitted for candidates contesting in wards of municipal corporations and in Grade I, special and selection grade municipalities has now been increased to Rs. 30,000 while contestants in Grade 3 municipalities and Nagar Panchayats can spend upto Rs. 25,000, he said. Replying to questions, the Commissioner said the Government had fixed Rs. 5,500 as election expenses for each of 7,500 polling stations in the State. He said the SEC was only going by the electoral rolls of the Election Commission of India and said that inclusions and exclusions was a continuous process.

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