City Reports

Rajasthan: Panchayat elections 2020 schedule announced; voting in 3 phases

December 26, 2019, 6:33 pm

Rajasthan state secretariat

Jaipur: The schedule for panchayat elections 2020 has been announced by the Rajasthan election commission. The panchayat elections will be held in 3 phases. The voting will be held on January 17 for the first phase of the elections. The polling for the second phase will be held on January 22 and for the third phase on January 29. The counting of votes will be held on the same day.

Elections of panchayat samitis and zilla parishad members will be organized after the gram panchayat elections. The government will likely appoint administrators in the panchayat committees and zilla parishads for the members whose tenure has come to an end.

With the announcement of the election dates, the model code of conduct has come into force. The counting of votes will take place immediately after voting. The results will be declared on the same day.

The State Election Commission has announced the dates for the election of 9,171 gram panchayats in the state. State Election Commission Commissioner Prem Singh Mehra announced the election dates on Thursday in a press conference here. Elections of sarpanch will be conducted through EVM machine, while elections of ward panch will be conducted through ballot papers. The minimum education qualification criteria will not be there.

Chief Election Commissioner Prem Singh Mehra said that there are a total of 11,142 gram panchayats in the state. But the voting will be held for 9,171 gram panchayats due to legal issues. He said that the dates of elections for the remaining Zilla Parishad members and the remaining gram panchayats will be announced later. There will be elections for 3,691 gram panchayats in the first phase.

With the announcement of election dates, the model code of conduct has come into force in these areas. Now the government will not be able to make any major public project announcements with prior consent from the election commission.

First published: December 26, 2019