District Collector and District Electoral Officer Vivek Yadav has said that political parties should cooperate with the district administration to ensure that the municipal elections are conducted in a peaceful and orderly manner in strict compliance with the code of conduct for municipal elections.
Mr. Yadav chaired a meeting with representatives of political parties in connection with the municipal elections at the Collectorate here on Friday.
Elections would be held for the Guntur Municipal Corporation and the municipalities of Tenali, Piduguralla, Macherla, Repalle, Chilakaluripet, Vinukonda and Sattenapalli. Elections in to be held in 205 wards as 85 wards were unopposed. Candidates in all the wards in the municipalities of Macherla and Piduguralla have been elected unopposed.
“We have identified 188 problematic and 364 most problematic polling stations and are taking necessary steps,” he said.
There are 763 candidates in the fray. Mr. Yadav said 23 MCC teams had been set up in all the municipalities where the elections would be held, including the Guntur Municipal Corporation, to monitor the code of conduct for elections. As part of the implementation of the model code, 2,842 banners, 60 wall paintings, 464 posters have been removed and 306 statues have been masked. An FIR has been registered under the Guntur Municipal Corporation for violating the model code. Similarly, cases were registered after seizing ₹8170 and 111.81 litres of liquor.
He said a special call centre had been set up for violations of the code of conduct and as soon as complaints were received, MCC teams would go there and resolve the issue and report back. A single window desk has been set up in each municipality for granting campaign permits.
“We have started distributing voter slips through BLOs from Friday and we are taking steps to ensure that 100 per cent voter slips are distributed,” he said.
Helpdesks had been set up in each ward secretariat to help voters find out which polling booth their vote is in.
Mr. Yadav said on the issues raised by various political parties at the meeting, the returning officers wanted to issue notices to the candidates concerned and political parties seeking clarification as soon as they were informed by the shadow parties and other media on violations of the code of conduct during the campaign.
