A day after announcing schedule for the conduct of Municipal polls in Jammu and Kashmir, the State Election Commission on Sunday declared that Panchayat elections would be held in the embattled region between November 17 and December 11 in 9 phases on non-party basis.
The announcement was made despite two prominent mainstream parties in Kashmir, the National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) decided to stay away from the polls in protest against linking their conduct with a pending litigation in Supreme Court regarding the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Articles 35A and 370 of the Indian Constitution.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shaleen Kabra told reporters that the Panchayat elections would be held in 9 phases on November 17, 20, 24, 27, 29 and December 01, 04, 08 and 11. The dates for issuance of gazette for each phase, making nominations, scrutiny, withdrawal, poll and counting dates were issued with related details of panchayat elections.
Kabra said the elections to around 4500 Panchayat Halqas in over 35000 panchayat Constituencies will have over 58 lakh electors in year 2018 as per the draft roll. He said the final rolls will be completed by the end of September.
He said ballot boxes would be used during the forthcoming Panchayat polls and postal ballot will be provided to the Kashmiri migrant voters at all places within and outside State. The polling will be held from 8 am to 2 pm.
He said district wise phasing of Panchayat elections has been done in both Kashmir and Jammu division covering the 22 districts of the State. He said in the process of finalizing the election schedule, all relevant aspects have been taken into consideration that includes holidays, festivals, examination dates and the usual weather patterns and migratory movements during the months of October to December.
The CEO said that state Government has planned secure security environment for the forthcoming Municipal and Panchayat elections in the State. With the announcement of this schedule, the Mode Code of Conduct (MCC) has come into force with immediate effect. All the ongoing developmental works shall continue. However, no new sanction or allotment shall be made during MCC period. All the provisions of MCC will apply to all the Panchayat Halqas (rural areas) and will be applicable to all the candidates, political parties and the state and central governments.
The last time elections were for village panchayats were held in 2011 after a gap of 10 years through secret ballot. The panchayats elected in year 2011 completed their tenure in July 2016. On Saturday, the SEC announced to hold Municipal bodies’ elections in four phases on 08, 10, 13 and 16 October this year.
The Commission announced poll schedules despite the decision of two main political parties National Conference and People’s Democratic Party to stay away from municipal and Panchayat polls. National Conference and PDP have already announced to boycott the upcoming panchayat and municipal polls in the State.
This is for the first time that most influential mainstream political parties are on the same page with the separatist groups on the conduct of elections. The separatist Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) has announced complete boycott to the polls while as Hizbul Mujahideen outfit has threatened voters and campaigners with consequences should they came out to vote. The outfit said that the voters and candidates would be attacked with sulphuric acid and hydrochloric acid.