The State Election Commission (SEC) on Tuesday announced dates for the panchayat elections polls across Odisha. As per a notification issued by the SEC in this regard, the elections would be held in five phases on February 13, 15, 17, 19 and 21.
Casting of votes would take place from 7 am to 12 noon, and counting of votes would be done from 1 pm onwards on these days, informed State Election Commissioner Rabi Narayan Senapati at a Press conference.
Nomination papers are to be filed between January 11 and 17 except on Government holidays while scrutiny of the same would be held on January 18. The last date for withdrawal of nominations is January 21, and the final list of candidates would be published on the same day, the SEC said. With the announcement, the code of conduct for the elections came into force from Tuesday.
The elections would be held for the posts of 853 Zilla Parishad Members, 6,802 Sarpanches, 6,801 Panchayat Samiti Members and 92,052 Ward Members in which 2,60,92,507 voters would decide the fates of the candidates.