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Mumbai, Nov 4 (IANS) The Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) on Tuesday announced the election schedule for 246 municipal councils and 42 nagar panchayats in the state. The officers provided this information.
These local bodies have 6,859 members and 288 chairpersons.
Elections will be held on December 2 while counting of votes will take place on December 3.
Nomination filing will start from November 10, last date for filing nominations will be on November 17, scrutiny on November 18, withdrawal of nominations with appeal on November 25 and nomination without appeal on November 20.
The announcement was made by State Election Commissioner (SEC) Dinesh Waghmare, who was accompanied by Secretary Suresh Kakani.
About 1.03 crore voters will participate in the voting and the last date of voter list will be July 1.
Out of total 246 municipal councils in the state, 10 are newly formed.
The tenure of all the remaining 236 city councils has ended.
Elections are being held for 42 out of total 147. Of the 42 Nagar Panchayats, 15 are newly formed; Whereas the tenure of all the remaining 27 Nagar Panchayats has already ended. The tenure of 105 city councils has not ended yet.
SEC Waghmare said electronic voting machines will be used during the polls, but reiterated that there will be no voter verifiable paper audit trails (VVPATs).
The SEC’s announcement comes amid the ongoing controversy over vote theft, duplicate and fake votes and the opposition’s demand to postpone these elections until the errors in the voter list are corrected.
The opposition parties have already announced to approach the High Court demanding that the errors in the voter list be corrected and local and municipal elections be held in the state only after removing them.
According to the SEC, candidates contesting elections from reserved wards are required to submit caste certificate and caste validity certificate; But if the caste validity certificate is not available, the State Government has amended the relevant Act to permit submission of the receipt of the application made to the Verification Committee along with the nomination form.
However, it is mandatory for such a candidate to submit the caste validity certificate within six months from the date of declaration of election, otherwise there is a provision in the relevant Act to cancel his election with retrospective effect.
SEC has developed the website https://mahasecelec.in for candidates to file nomination papers and affidavits for the local body elections.
Candidates can register on it and file nomination papers for Municipal Council and Nagar Panchayat elections.
Through one registration, a candidate can file four nomination papers in the respective ward.
After filling the complete nomination form and affidavit on the website, its printout will have to be taken and signed.
After that it will be necessary to submit that copy to the concerned Returning Officer within the prescribed time limit.
SEC Waghmare said that the SEC has taken the issue of duplicate voters seriously and has developed a tool which will screen out duplicate voters.
Duplicate voters, who do not respond to the concerned authorities when contacted, will collect information about where the voter will vote.
Earlier, the SEC had directed all concerned authorities to check possible duplicate names in the voter lists, exercise due diligence and take necessary action to maintain transparency and accuracy in the upcoming local and civic body elections in the state.
The SEC also reiterated that there is no provision for using VVPAT in these elections.
The name of a potential duplicate voter in the local bodies’ format or final voter list is marked with a symbol.
These potential duplicate voters will be scrutinized at the local level to verify whether they are indeed the same person or different persons.
The statement issued by the State Election Commission said, “After preliminary verification of the name, gender, address and photograph of the voter, if they are found to be identical, an application in the prescribed format will be taken from that voter mentioning the exact ward, Zilla Parishad Election Division/Panchayat Samiti Constituency where the voter will vote. Such voter will not be able to vote at any of the remaining polling stations.”
It states that if no response is received from the voter with probable duplicate name, an affidavit in the prescribed format will be taken from the voter stating that the voter has not voted at any other polling station with his name and will not vote, if such voter comes to the polling station to vote.
“Such a voter will be allowed to vote only after strict identification,” it said.
Another statement issued by the State Election Commission said, “There is no provision for the use of VVPATs in the laws or rules relating to local body elections. Moreover, with a few exceptions, almost all local body elections are conducted according to the multi-member ward system. For this, the Technical Appraisal Committee of all the State Election Commissions in the country is studying the development of voting machines with VVPAT connection facility and their final report has not yet been submitted. Therefore, at present, It is not possible to use VVPAT in these elections.”
–IANS
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