Team Herald
PANJIM: Elections for the 50 Zilla Panchayat (ZP) seats will be held on March 15 on party lines. The elections will be a litmus test for the Dr Pramod Sawant government, that came to power in March last year following the death of Manohar Parrikar.
The Goa State Election Commission (SEC) on Thursday notified the poll dates, while the programme and schedule of the election process would be announced later. The five-year term of the ZPs ends on March 23.
Speaking to media persons, State Election Commissioner R K Srivastava said the Commission in consultation with the State government has notified March 15 as the poll date. “As per the Constitution, the polls are to be held before the end of the current ZP tenure, that is March 23. The polls were last held on March 18, 2015,” he said.
“The elections will be held on party lines, this time too,” the Commissioner said, adding that the expenditure limit per candidate is fixed at Rs 5 lakh.
Srivastava said that the detailed election schedule, including nomination, counting, etc would be announced once the electoral roll is finalised and notified, which is likely to be next month.
Asked about delimitation of wards, Srivastava said that the reservations and delimitation would be the same as in the 2015 elections.
The SEC has already appointed Returning Officers and Assistant Returning Officers for North and South Goa, who are of the level of deputy collectors and mamlatdars.
In 2015, BJP, with the support of allies, had managed to win both North and South Goa ZPs. While the saffron party along with MGP had contested the poll on party lines, Congress had backed individual candidates.
