PANJIM: Amidst debate over reservation for upcoming Zilla Panchayat elections, the State Election Commission (SEC) on Wednesday said that the reservation of constituencies is the prerogative of the government.
Speaking to media persons, election commissioner R K Srivastava said that the reservations have to be notified by the government.
He, however, maintained that the reservations would have been done much in advance.
“Reservation of constituencies has to be notified by the government. This is again within the powers of the government. We have reminded him. They should have done it earlier, but we hope that it should be done very quickly,” commissioner said.
Srivastava said that the election commission is only responsible for preparation of the electoral rolls, which have been prepared by the 15 returning officers and notified.
“We are just awaiting the notification on reservation of constituencies from the government. Thereafter, we will go ahead with announcement of schedule,” he said.
He also informed that the delimitation of Zilla Panchayat constituencies which was done in 2015 has been retained.
The opposition had accused the government of delaying reservations process to benefit the coalition candidates.
