Team Herald
PANJIM: The filing of nominations for 50 Zilla Panchayat (ZP) seats will begin from Thursday. The polls are scheduled to be held on March 22.
The nominations, which will begin from Thursday, have to be filed before the concerned Returning Officers (RO) on payment of Rs 500 for general category candidates and Rs 300 for reserved seats. The last date for filing the nominations is March 5; while no nominations will be accepted on March 1 being a public holiday (Sunday).
The scrutiny of applications will take place on March 6 and withdrawals; if any on March 7.
As many as 30 seats are reserved under various categories like women (16 seats), Schedule Caste (1 seat), Schedule Tribe (6 seats) and Other Backward Class (14 seats).
Total 8,29,876 voters including 4,04,271 male and 4,25,605 female, are eligible to cast vote on March 22. The counting of votes will take place on March 23.
SEC holds meeting with political parties
Meanwhile, ahead of nominations, the State Election Commission (SEC) on Wednesday held a meeting with political party representatives.
In a statement issued, SEC has said that out of the nine political parties who were invited to attend the meeting, the representatives from BJP, Congress, NCP and MGP attended the meeting.
“The broad outlines of the election schedule and the arrangements made for holding the poll on March 22 were discussed in general with special emphasis on the enforcement and compliance of the model code of conduct,” SEC said.
The commission has noted the suggestions made by the representatives of the political parties and has agreed to issue necessary clarifications wherever required and the instructions to all the ROs and Assistant ROs immediately so that there is no lack of clarity at their level.
The commission added that the cooperation of all the political parties present in the meeting was sought to assist the election machinery in holding the ZP elections in a free, fair and peaceful manner.
