AP gram panchayat elections: First phase of local polls today
AP gram panchayat elections: First phase of local polls today
AP gram panchayat elections: Stage is set for the first phase of elections for 2,723 gram panchayats and 20,157 ward members in the state on Tuesday.
According to Principal Secretary of Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Gopalakrishna Dwivedi elections will be held in 12 districts excluding Vizianagaram district on Tuesday. He said 7,506 candidates are in the fray for gram panchayat elections and 43,601 candidates are in the contest for ward member posts.
He said 29,732 polling stations were set up. Of them 3458 sensitive polling stations and 3,594 hypersensitive polling stations were identified.
The principal secretary said that no nominations were filed for sarpanch post in Velicharla village of Nellore district. He said elections will not be held at Boppanapalli and Vaddigudem in West Godavari district as there was a mistake in allotment of symbols to contesting candidates. He said for the first time NOTA was introduced in panchayat elections this time.
The principal secretary said that 1,130 returning officers for phase I and 3249 returning officers for phase II , 1,432 assistant returning officers and 33,533 presiding officers were appointed. He said 519 zonal officers, 1,121 route officers and 3,047 micro observers were appointed.
Panchayat Raj Commissioner Girija Shankar said election officials will conduct thermal scanning of all the voters to filter out people with temperature or coronavirus symptoms to facilitate them to exercise their franchise separately.
"All the coronavirus precautionary measures have been taken. Temperatures will be checked when the voters will come in the queue. Anyone with high temperature will be separated," he said. Such voters will be allowed to vote between 2.30 pm and 3.30 pm using a PPE kit. Similarly, anyone who is Covid positive will be allowed to in a similar way, he added.
Elections will start from 6.30 am on Tuesday and last until 3.30 pm while vote counting will begin from 4 pm. He said that the counting of votes will take place immediately after the completion of the polling. A command control centre was set up at the Panchayat Raj Commissionerate and webcasting was arranged to know the position at polling stations.