Arunachal sets stage for panchayat and civic polls

The stage is set for elections to panchayati raj institutions and civic bodies of Itanagar and Pashighat in Arunachal Pradesh with the deployment of over 40,000 personnel to ensure the smooth conduct of polls on Monday, officials said. Polling will begin at 7 am and continue till 4 pm, State Election Commissioner (SEC) Rinchin Tashi said.

The ruling BJP won 58 zilla parishad constituencies unopposed, and the National People’s Party (NPP) bagged one seat, while four saffron party candidates were elected to the Itanagar Municipal Corporation (IMC) without any contest.

Altogether 5,037 BJP candidates for gram panchayat seats have also been declared elected unopposed.

In total, 440 candidates are in the fray for 186 zilla parishad seats, while 39 are contesting for 16 IMC wards and 21 for eight wards in Pasighat Municipal Council (PMC). The SEC said 13-gram panchayat constituencies received no nominations, while all nominations in 14-gram panchayat constituencies were rejected during scrutiny.

Polling in the Dumba Singpho gram panchayat seat has been countermanded following the death of a candidate. Altogether 8,31,648 voters, including 7,59,210 for panchayat bodies and 72,438 for municipal elections, are eligible to cast their ballots.

There will be 2,171 polling stations for panchayat elections, 67 for IMC and 12 for PMC, the SEC said.

“In the panchayat polls, female voters outnumber male voters,” Tashi said.

Upper Subansiri district has the highest number of panchayat voters at 58,764, while Dibang Valley has the lowest at 3,854 electors.

In the municipal polls, Itanagar’s Ward 19 has the highest number of voters at 5,106, whereas Pasighat’s Ward 6 has the lowest with 812 voters.

The SEC has deployed over 40,000 personnel, including 15,000 polling staffers, to ensure the smooth conduct of the polls.

“The commission has also appointed 29 general observers, one for each district and the two municipal bodies. Special security measures are in force in the sensitive districts of Tirap, Changlang and Longding,” Tashi said.

Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will be used for municipal polls, and ballot boxes for panchayat voting.