HYDERABAD : The State Election Commission has asked the Government to finalise the reservation process for the panchayat elections by May 25 so that poll notification could be issued in the second week of June.

"The process of identification of panchayats and wards for reservation of seats to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes and women has to be completed by May 25," a senior SEC official told The Hindu .

Once the process was done, the ball would be set rolling for announcement of the schedule.

The notification for election to the zilla and mandal parishads, including Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies and Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies ,would be issued before June 12.

The gram panchayat polls would be notified in July as the incumbents' term ends on August 23.

Polls in phases

Indications available point out that the ZP and mandal parishad elections would be held in two phases and the gram panchayat polls in three phases.

The SEC is expected to issue the notification to elect 22 ZPs, 1,096 ZPTCs, equal number of mandal parishads and 14,617 MPTCs. Election of sarpanches would be direct, but on non-party basis. In the case of ZPs and mandal parishads it would be on party basis.

The sources said 1.3 lakh electronic voting machines were requisitioned for the ZP and mandal parishad elections. "We can use EVMs for the ZP and mandal parishad elections only as the number of polling booths will be 49,298," they said. It was next to impossible to use them in the gram panchayat polls as more than two lakh EVMs would be required.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail