The State Election Commission (SEC) held an all-party meeting on Saturday for preparations for the forthcoming panchayat elections in the State.
A detailed discussion was held with the representatives of political parties on the limits of election expenditure by the candidates. It was proposed in the meeting to increase the limit of election expenditures of Sarpanch and Nominee candidates for the upcoming polls
“The political parties have proposed to increase the election expenditure of Sarpanch and Nominee candidates from Rs 80,000 to Rs 2 lakh. It has been proposed to increase the amount from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh for Zilla Parishad candidates,” said SEC Aditya Prasad Padhi.
“The voters’ list will be prepared before the ensuing election without any mistake. The Electors Photo Identification Card (EPIC) id number of the voters will be added along with their names to the list,” said Padhi.
He further stated that usually the voting time was from 7 am to 12 pm. But as this time, there will be a central counting at the block level instead of booths.
Most of the political parties are of the opinion to increase the duration of polling period by two more hours. Besides, the political parties proposed to make the forthcoming panchayat polls alcohol-free. “Most of the political parties were of the opinion to ban liquor seven days ahead of the election,” Padhi said.