PIL in Gujarat HC seeks stay to local body elections

A public interest litigation filed in the Gujarat High Court today sought a stay to the coming local body polls in the state, alleging mismanagement by the State Election Commission (SEC).
Justice A G Uraizee would hear the PIL, filed by the Gujarat Nagrik Sangathan, tomorrow.
Among other things, the petition states that voters are in the dark about the background of candidates, as the affidavits filed with the nominations, giving information about the candidate's income, education, criminal record (if any), etc., have not been uploaded on the SEC website yet.
Hence, the voters can't decide who to vote for, it says.

Voting for the municipal corporations of Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar will take place on November 22, while that for 31 district panchayats, 230 taluka panchayats and 56 municipalities will take place on November 29.
Another grievance of the petitioners is that political parties this time have not come out with manifestos which are an integral part of the election process.

(Reopens LGD14)
The state poll panel had said it had limited number of staff familiar with the delimitation and election works and that attending to both of these simultaneously might not be possible.
Seven wards in South Delhi Municipal Corporation, four in the north and two in the east are currently without councillors.

On November 2, the AAP government had said that it is for the Delhi election panel to take a final decision on holding of the municipal bypolls.
The commission had sought a direction to provide requisite funds and resources to conduct elections to the vacant 13 municipal seats out of the total 272 wards in all three municipal corporations in Delhi.