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Voting for the six municipal corporations will be held on November 22, while that for the rest of the 317 bodies including municipalities, district panchayats and taluka panchayats will be held on November 29, 2015. On the other hand, while counting of votes for municipal corporations will take place on November 26, that for the rest of the bodies will be done on December 2, the state election commissioner, Varesh Sinha told mediapersons on Friday.
By-polls for vacant posts in all panchayats, tehsils and municipalities will also be conducted along with the panchayat polls. With the announcement of local body polls in the state, the model code of conduct has been put into force.
Earlier this week, Gujarat High Court had quashed an ordinance issued by the state government to delay local bodies polls, terming it "unconstitutional", even as the SEC was directed to "conduct polls before the expiry of their terms".
Gujarat SEC was also pulled up for using a government ordinance to postpone the polls for three months, which was termed "illegal" even as the court observed the commission's attitude regarding timely conduct of polls as "negative".
The ordinance amending section 7(a) of Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation Act, 8(A) of Municipality Act and 257 of Panchayat Act "is unconstitutional and void and hence quashed and set aside", a bench of acting Chief Justice Jayant Patel and N V Anjariya had observed.
According to the SEC, the total number of registered voters, who would exercise their franchise stands at 35.55 million of which 18.59 million are male voters, while 16.95 million are female voters for all the bodies put together. Of these, the six municipal corporation have a total 9.59 million registered voters with 5.11 million males and 4.47 million female voters.
Meanwhile, around 813 election officers will be on duty, along with 1062 officials assisting them for the polls. As part of security arrangements, about 2,30,000 policemen will be deployed for election duty.
Apart from electronic voting machines (EVMs) at polling booths, voters will also be able cast their votes online. For this, the SEC will be introducing a mobile application for e-voting registration. Moreover, an e-dashboard technology will also be introduced by SEC for real-time update of voter turnout on the day of polls.
Given the multi ward system in municipal corporations with four candidates in each ward, SEC has purchased Rs 48 crore worth EVMs. Further, for panchayat polls, EVMs worth Rs 25 crore have been purchased.
