The Hindu : Front Page : Delhi to go to the polls on April 5

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 24, 2007
ePaper

Front Page

Front Page

Delhi to go to the polls on April 5

Staff Reporter

OVER TO THE POLLS: The grand old Town Hall in Chandni Chowk, the headquarters of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

NEW DELHI: Delhi will finally have a new civic body by April 10 as mandated by the Constitution with the State Election Commission on Friday announcing elections on April 5 for the 272 newly carved out wards of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

Announcing the schedule, State Election Commissioner S. P. Marwah said notification for the elections would be issued on March 10 and the entire process would be completed by April 9. The model code of conduct comes into force with immediate effect.

Mr. Marwah said the last date for filing nominations would be March 17, while scrutiny of nomination papers would take place on March 19. The last date for withdrawal is March 22 and counting of votes will be taken up on April 7.

The dates were finalised to ensure that they do not clash with the forthcoming Central Board of Secondary Education examinations, he added.

In all, about 99 lakh voters are entitled to cast their ballots to elect 272 Councillors in Delhi's 12 municipal zones. Of the 272 seats, 46 are reserved for the Scheduled Castes and 92 for women, including 16 seats from among the Scheduled Castes category. Before the delimitation process completed recently, there were 134 municipal wards in the city.

A total of 10,500 polling stations will be set up across the city where for the first time electronic voting machines will be used for MCD polls. Over 12,000 EVMs are likely to be used in the process. Polling will take place between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. without break. Over 60,000 polling personnel will supervise the entire polling process.

Stating that the entire election process would be completed by March 9, a day before the first meeting of the new MCD House is scheduled, Mr. Marwah said 34 election observers and a similar number of election expenditure observers would oversee the election process and ensure proper enforcement of the model code of conduct.

Mr. Marwah said the election expenditure ceiling for each candidate has been fixed at Rs.1.5 lakh. Putting up hoardings, banners, buntings and posters for the polls is banned. Similarly, use of loudspeakers would be restricted up to 10 p.m. -- that too only with prior permission of the competent authority, he added.

The Election Commissioner said that as per revision of the electoral rolls up to January 1, 2007, the number of electorate in Delhi is 99 lakh. However, since revision of electoral rolls is an ongoing process, those included in the rolls up to March 22 would be allowed to vote.

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

Front Page