Puducherry civic polls to be held from October 21 to 28 in three phases

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Puducherry: The civic polls will be held in the union territory of Puducherry in three phases between October 21 and 28.

State Election Commissioner Roy P Thomas told reporters on Wednesday after releasing the poll schedule that the statutory notification for the first phase of poll slated for October 21 for the Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam municipalities and also for the commune panchayats of Kottucherry, Nedungadu, Neravy, Tirumalairayanpattinam and Tirunallar (all in Karaikal region) would be issued on September 30 to set the poll process in motion.

The notification for the second phase of poll slated to be held on October 25 for the Municipalities in Puducherry and Oulgaret (in Puducherry) would be issued on October 4.

He said the third phase of poll has been scheduled to be held on October 28 to the Ariyankuppam, Bahoor, Mannadipet, Nettapakkam and Villianur commune panchayats and the statutory notification for the third phase of election would be issued on October 7.

The SEC said the elections to the local bodies are being held in Union Territory after a gap of 15 years. In the first phase, 2.30 lakh voters would go to the polls while 4.44 lakh voters would exercise their franchise in the second phase and in the third phase 3.28 lakh voters would go to the poll.

The election would be held between 7 am And 6 pm. The SEC said and added that the last one hour (between 5 pm and 6 pm) would be earmarked for Covid patients and patients with symptoms of the pandemic to exercise their franchise.

Roy P Thomas also said for the first time multi-post electronic voting machines would be used in the polls.

As many as 1629 polling stations have been identified wherein about 8500 officers would be deployed to conduct the polls “in a free, fair and transparent manner”. Counting of votes would take place on October 31 after the poll in three phases is completed.

The last civic poll was held in 2006 and no election could be held at the end of the five-year tenure of the civic bodies that came into existence in the wake of the 2006 polls for various reasons.