Team Herald
PANJIM: The 50 Zilla Panchayat seats will go for polls on party lines on March 22; while the counting will take place on March 23. With the State Election Commission (SEC) announcing the poll schedule, the model code of conduct comes into force from Friday and will continue till the results are declared.
The five-year long term of the existing Zilla Panchayat ends on March 24 and hence the new panchayat has to be constituted before the due date.
A total of 8,29,876 voters including 4,04,271 male and 4,25,605 female, are eligible to cast their vote on March 22. 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).
Addressing media persons, State Election Commissioner R K Srivastava said that elections for the 50 ZP seats, 25 each in North and South Goa, will be held on March 22 across 1,237 polling stations from 8am to 5pm. He said that the elections would be held on party lines.
“The counting will take place on March 23,” he said adding that with announcement of dates, the model code of conduct comes into force with immediate effect.
The process of filing nomination papers will begin from February 27 till 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. The nominations will be filed before the concerned Returning Officers on payment of Rs 500 for general category candidates and Rs 300 for reserved seats.
Srivastava said that the voting will take place through ballot papers and the entire process of voting and counting will be monitored through online Election Management System (EMS). “The system for real time assessment of polling and counting process was first introduced during the panchayat elections, held two years back,” he said.
SEC has fixed the expenditure limit to Rs five lakhs for each candidate. Total 9500 staffers, including police, would be deployed on election duty. SEC has appointed 15 Returning officers and Additional Returning Officers.
Speaking about the code of conduct, Srivastava said that during the month-long code period, government cannot make any new announcements or issue fresh tenders or work order or bring into effect promotions, transfers or appointments. “All such activities are banned during the code process,” he said.
The total election budget is estimated at Rs six crore.
