Civic polls in 9 Tamil Nadu districts on October 6 and 9

Local body elections in nine newly-created districts of Tamil Nadu would be held in two phases on October 6 and 9, state election commissioner V Palanikumar said Monday.
Elections will be held in 39 unions on October 6, while the remaining 35 will go to polls on October 9. Palanikumar said the code of conduct would come into immediate effect in the districts of Kancheepuram, Chengalpet, Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupattur, Villupuram, Kallakurichi, Tirunelveli and Tenkasi where the polls would be held.In 28 other districts, elections would be held on October 9 for 789 posts in the local bodies, which are lying vacant, said the state election commissioner.
Filing of nominations will begin on September 15 and continue until September 22. Counting will be held on October 12. The elections would be held for 27,003 posts, including those of 140 district panchayat ward councillors, 2,901 village panchayat presidents and 22,581 village panchayat ward councillors, the commissioner said.A total of 76,59,720 voters would exercise their franchise in the two-phase polls. Each voter would cast four votes to elect the district panchayat ward councillors, panchayat union councillors, village panchayat president and village panchayat ward councillors. Ballot paper would be used, the officer said.
Polling will take place from 7am to 6pm. Covid-19 patients and persons with symptoms would be allowed to vote from 5pm to 6pm. “We will appoint a micro observer and videograph the proceedings in sensitive booths,” said the commissioner. He noted that 40,000 police personnel would also be roped in for election duty.
As many as 1.10 lakh government employees would be engaged for poll duty. The commission would engage an IAS officer as an election observer for each district.
“We have taken all precautionary measures to conduct the polls in a free and fair manner. The arrangements have been made after holding a meeting with representatives of political parties,” said Palanikumar. The polls would be held as per the standard operating procedure and in compliance with Covid-19 norms, he added.
The Election Commission has commenced preparatory work to hold elections for urban local bodies too.