Campaigning for the December 15 municipal and panchayat elections in Arunachal Pradesh ended on Saturday. Panchayat and civic elections to the Itanagar Municipal Corporation (IMC) and the Pasighat Municipal Council (PMC) will be held on December 15.
The polling, which will begin at 7 am on Monday, will end at 4 pm, State Election Commissioner (SEC) Rinchin Tashi said. The campaigning for the polls ended at 4 pm on Saturday. Tashi, in an order, said that no person shall convene, hold or attend any public meeting relating to panchayat and municipal elections in the State in the next 48 hours.
As many as 63 candidates have already been elected uncontested in municipal and rural elections in the State. The ruling BJP won unopposed in 58 zilla parishad constituencies, besides one candidate from the National People’s Party (NPP).
A total of 5,037 BJP candidates for gram panchayat member seats have also been declared elected without contest. Four BJP candidates were also elected unopposed for the Itanagar Municipal Corporation (IMC).
A total of 440 candidates will contest 186 zilla parishad seats, along with 39 candidates for 16 IMC wards, and 21 candidates for eight PMC wards. The SEC said that a total of 13-gram panchayat constituencies received no nominations, while all nominations in 14-gram panchayat constituencies were rejected during scrutiny. Polling in the Dumba Singpho gram panchayat constituency has been countermanded due to the death of a validly nominated candidate.
A total of 8,31,648 voters — including 7,59,210 for rural polls and 72,438 for civic polls -- are eligible to cast their ballots across 2,171 polling stations for panchayat elections, 67 for IMC, and 12 for PMC polling stations. Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will be used for municipal polls, while ballot boxes will be deployed for panchayat elections. The counting of votes will be held on December 20.
