For public convenience the State Election Commission has increased the stipulated time of the panchayat elections by one hour. The State Election Commissioner Subardhan has issued a notification to start the process of voting from 7 am instead of the earlier schedule of 8 am.
The SEC has ordered that the time for the polling in the three-tier panchayat elections in the State would be from 7 am to 5 pm and all those who are present inside the polling station at 5 pm should be allowed to exercise their franchise.
Subardhan has asked the District Election Officers that the district administration should be fully prepared for the Panchayat polls and they should ensure that the polling time of 7 am- 5 pm is strictly followed.
The three tier panchayat polls in all the districts of the state barring Haridwar would be held in three stages on June 18, 21 and 24. In these polls 46,94,689 (23,13,900 female voters and 23,77,103 male ) strong rural electorate of 12 districts, 89 blocks and 7,657 village Panchayats would directly elect 49,337 members of village Panchayats, 7,657 Village Pradhans, 3,054 members of Block Panchayat and 389 members of District Panchayat. The positions of Deputy Pradhan, Junior Deputy Pramukh, Senior Deputy Pramukh, Pramukh Block Panchayat, Vice President District Panchayat and President District Panchayat would be indirectly elected by the elected representatives.
Since Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) would not be used in these elections the voters would be provided the paper ballots. The ballot papers would be of four colours, the colour of ballot paper for member Village panchayat is kept white, for pradhan village panchayat ballot is Green, for member block panchayat Blue coloured ballot paper would be used while the colour of ballot paper for member district panchayat would
be Pink.
The election commission has set up 8,387 polling centres and 10,516 polling booths for the panchayat elections.