The State Election Commission (SEC) is gearing itself to conduct the re-elections for 14,966 member Village Panchayat and 24 Pradhans in the 12 districts of the State. The re-elections would be held on July 26 and are being necessitated as these positions remained vacant in the Panchayat elections last month.
The Deputy Commissioner of State Election Commission Ajit Singh said all the preparations for free and fair re-elections have been made.
He informed that all the poll related material like ballot papers and ballot boxes have reached their respective destinations. To meet the constitutional obligations which demands that at least two third positions of the three tier Panchayati Raj system should be filled, the re elections for these positions is being necessitated. After the elections for the directly elected posts of the three tier Panchayati Raj system which were held in all districts of Uttarakhand barring Haridwar onJune 18, 21 and 24, a staggering 14966 positions of Member Village Panchayat remained vacant.
These positions remained vacant as not even a single candidate remained in electoral fray for these positions due to no nominations, death of candidates and rejection of the nominations. Almora with 3034 vacant positions of member village Panchayat is at top of the list while Pauri has 2740 vacant positions and Nainital has 1557 such positions. Apart from these positions, the re elections for 24 positions of Village Pradans would also be held on July 26 and the result would be declared on July 28.