The constitution of new municipal bodies in Uttarakhand has resulted in decrease in numerical strength of the panchayat representatives and voters in the three tier panchayat raj system. In the ensuing panchayat elections, a total of 4311423 voters would exercise their franchise, this figure when compared with the total electorate of 4694689 in the panchayat elections of 2014 means that the Panchayats have lost 383266 voters in these last five years.
In the 2014 panchayat elections, 2313900 female and 2377103 male voters were registered in 12 districts ( barring Haridwar), 89 blocks and 7657 village Panchayats. In this elections 49337 village Panchayats members, 7657 Pradhans, 3054 members of Block Panchayat and 389 members of District Panchayat were elected.
In the ensuing panchayat elections, 2105093 female and 2206330 male votes are eligible to cast their votes in 7485 village panchayats in 89 blocks of 12 districts. The rural electorate would elect 55574 village Panchayats members, 7485 Pradhans, 2984 members of Block Panchayat and 356 District Panchayat members.
The decrease in number of rural electorate has occurred due to delimitation of the municipal bodies and creation of new municipalities. In 2017, Uttarakhand had a total of 78 municipal bodies that included six municipal corporations, 31 municipal councils and 41 Nagar Panchayats.
The state now has 93 municipal bodies which include eight municipal corporations.
The tenure of Panchayats in all the districts of Uttarakhand barring Haridwar ended in July this year after which the State Government has appointed administrators in the Panchayats.
The elections in the three tier panchayat raj system in Uttarakhand would be held in three stages. In the first stage, the voting would be held on October 5 while the second and third stage of voting would be held on October 11 and 16 respectively. The counting of votes would start at 8 AM on October 21 and the results are expected to be declared on the same day. One of a special feature of these elections is that the EVMs would not be used by the commission. The state election commission would use traditional ballot papers in these elections.
Meanwhile clearing the confusion on the eligibility of the people having more than two children to contest the panchayat elections, the state election commission has sent advisory to all district magistrates asking them to accept the candidature of all the contestants. Reversing the provision of Uttarakhand Panchayat Raj (amendment) act-2019, the Uttarakhand High Court (HC) in a landmark decision had ruled that the candidates having more than two children before to July 25, 2019 are eligible to contest the panchayat elections. On Saturday a delegation of the Uttarakhand Panchayat Jan Adhikar Manch led by its convener Jot Singh Bisht met the secretary, state election commission Rohan Lal and requested that the order of HC should be implemented completely.
