Bhubaneswar: The State Election Commission (SEC) of Odisha has convened an all-party meeting January 10 in view of the upcoming panchayat polls, as per a notification issued Tuesday.
The meeting will be held at 11.30 am at Gita Govind Sadan, adhering to the COVID-19 protocols.
In view of the surging COVID-19 cases, the SEC asked the political parties to send one representative each to the meeting.
The SEC has already issued a notification, stating that polling will be held for 853 Zilla Parishad seats, 91,916 wards, 6,794 panchayats in the state.
The dates for the elections will be announced after the meeting.
For the first time, central counting will be done during the panchayat elections. Earlier, counting used to be held at the polling booths.
The SEC has also raised the expenditure limit for candidates, and issued a model code of conduct.
PTI
