The notification for the long pending local body elections may be issued very soon.
Despite objections raised by a section of legislators affiliated to the ruling BJP in the recent budget session of the Assembly, the State Election Commission is going ahead with the schedule as directed by the Supreme Court.
Some MLAs had sought postponement of the elections due to COVID-19 and citing discrepancies in the delimitation exercise.
As per the Supreme Court order, the SEC is scheduled to complete the local body elections by October 4.
The Supreme Court had directed the commission to hold the elections on the basis of a contempt petition filed by Ashok Kumar, a lawyer from Mahe, citing delay in holding the local body elections.
“We are going ahead with the plans. A notification announcing the schedule of local body elections will be issued very soon,” said an official. The Commission has already procured 2,000 Electronic Voting Machines from Telangana and another 1,300 machines from Karnataka.
In addition, the SEC had also brought 500 more ballot units from Karnataka as the number of machines used for local body elections is higher due to the number of votes cast by voters in municipal and gram panchayats.
The official said the machines purchased are in addition to the 1,100 units already existing with the Election Commission of India, Puducherry.
Unlike in assembly elections, voters will have to exercise two votes for the municipality and three at the panchayat level. Therefore, each EVM will have three ballot units and one control unit, the official said.