Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

After three years of delay local body elections will hopefully be held in Tamil Nadu within a short span of time. However the SEC seeks three more months of delay for the completion of preparations.

The Tamil Nadu government had earlier told the Supreme Court that it was not able to conduct elections because of the lack of district officials as they were engaged in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls in the state.The local body polls had not been held since 2016 and the Madras HC had put out its view of holding the polls latest by May 31st.

Many allegations were raised on the government of Tamil Nadu such as the one by advocate Jaya Sukin mentioning that it was the lack of local body representatives that caused the prolonged delay in the conduction of polls. But the TN government refuted to the allegations.

Finally it has put out a gazette notification regarding the preparation of electoral rolls and polling stations for the upcoming local body elections. The state had also constituted a delimitation commission which submitted its recommendations on newly delimited wards for SC,ST and women.

The Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (TNSEC) appointed a State Election Officer and District Election Officers for by-polls to be conducted in the state. It has stated that the electoral rolls should contain the sketch of the polling areas in addition to the details of voters included at every page. The maximum number of voters’ details is stated to be 30 on each page. The TNSEC has mentioned the setting up of polling stations according to the rules in 2016 handbook put out by the commission and that the approved list of polling stations will be put out at the offices of District Election Officer, Block Development Officer, District Panchayat, Village Panchayat.

The TNSEC has however moved the Madras HC stating that it could not complete electoral roll verification since the EC handed over these rolls only in April as contrary to its expectation in January. This sub-application will be heard by the HC only in June when it reopens after the three month long vacation.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *