Bhubaneswar: After the fifth phase of three-tier rural elections ended February 24, the State Election Commission (SEC) Friday announced the schedule for the upcoming urban polls 2022 in Odisha.
Polls to the 110 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) including 48 Municipalities and 59 NACs and three Municipal Corporations will be held March 24, 2022. The counting of votes will be conducted March 26, 2022. Results of the elections will be declared on the same day, State Election Commissioner Aditya Prasad Padhi informed here.
General elections will be held for the purpose of reconstituting and/or constituting the 107 municipalities/NACs and three civic corporations – Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) and Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC).
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According to Padhi, the notice for upcoming urban polls will be issued February 28. With this announcement, the model code of conduct has come to immediate force from Friday.
The SEC also directed that option ‘None of the above’ (NOTA) will be provided to voters for the general elections to ULBs. The NOTA option shall be printed in the last panel after the last candidate name.
It is pertinent to mention, the elections to ULBs were overdue since December 2018 and in some cases from July, 2019.
There will be ballot papers of two different colours to be used in the elections to 110 Municipalities, NACs and Municipal Corporations. The colour of ballot papers for Corporator/Councilor will be ‘Pink’ and Mayor/Chairperson will be ‘Yellow’ in exercise of powers vested in it under Article 243 Z-A of the Constitution.
Urban voters will exercise their right to franchise at a total of 4,584 polling booths in 1,931 Wards in the upcoming civic body polls.
Final voter list for BMC and CMC has already been released. As many as 7,25,765 voters in 67 wards will cast their votes at 705 booths in Bhubaneswar, of which 3,94,510 are male, 3,30,815 are female and 440 belong to ‘Others’ category.
Similarly, 4,50,759 voters in 59 wards will cast their votes in Cuttack, of which 2,31,030 are male, 2,19,598 are female and 131 belong to ‘Others’ category.
In the last ULB elections held in the state in 2013-14, the democratic exercise was carried out in a total of 94 ULBs. The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) had won in as many as 70 ULBs, Congress party in 15, BJP in two and Independents in six.
Important dates to be noted for reference:
Issue of Notice – February 28, 2022
Filing of Nominations – From March 2 to March 7, 2022
Scrutiny – March 9, 2022
Withdrawal of Nominations – Up to March 14, 2022
Voting – March 24, 2022
Counting of Votes – March 26, 2022
Election of Vice-Chairperson – April 7, 2022
Election of Deputy Mayor – April 8, 2022
PNN
