Maharashtra Civic Polls Set for December 2 Amid Voter List Controversy

There are 6,859 members and 288 presidents of these local bodies.

The elections will be held on December 2 while counting is set to take place on December 3.

The filing of nomination will start on November 10, last date for filing nomination will be November 17, scrutiny on November 18, withdrawal of nominations with appeals on November 25 and without appeals on November 20.

The announcement was made by the State Election Commissioner (SEC) Dinesh Waghmare, who was accompanied by Secretary Suresh Kakani.

Nearly 1.03 crore voters will participate in the polling and the cut off date for voters' list will be July 1.

Of the total 246 Nagar Parishads in the state, 10 are newly formed.

The term of all the remaining 236 Municipal Councils has expired.

At the same time, out of the total 147, 42 are being elected. Out of the 42 Nagar Panchayats, 15 are newly formed; while the term of all the remaining 27 Nagar Panchayats has already expired. The term of 105 Municipal Councils has not expired yet.

SEC Waghmare said the electronic voting machines will be used during the polling but reiterated there would not be voter verifiable paper audit trails (VVPATs).

The SEC's announcement comes amid the ongoing row over vote theft, duplicate and bogus votes and the demand by Opposition to postpone these polls till errors in the electoral rolls are rectified.

The opposition parties have already announced to approach the high court seeking removal of errors in the voters' list and only after clearing them hold the local and civic body elections in the state.

According to the SEC, candidates contesting from reserved wards are required to submit caste certificate and caste validity certificate; but if caste validity certificate is not available, the state government has amended the relevant act to allow submission of the receipt of the application made to the verification committee along with the nomination paper.

However, it is mandatory for such a candidate to submit the caste validity certificate within six months from the date of declaration of election, otherwise there is a provision in the relevant act to cancel his election with retrospective effect.

The SEC has developed the website https://mahasecelec.in for the candidates to file nomination papers and affidavits for the local body elections.

Candidates can register on it and file nomination papers for the Nagar Parishad and Nagar Panchayat elections.

Through one registration, a candidate can file four nomination papers in the respective ward.

After filling the entire nomination paper and affidavit on the website, a printout of it will have to be taken and signed.

After that, it will be necessary to submit that copy to the concerned Returning Officer within the prescribed time limit.

SEC Waghmare said that the SEC has taken the duplicate voters seriously and a tool has been developed whereby duplicate voters will be shown.

Duplicate voters, who do not respond to the concerned officials when contacted, will take information about where the voter will be voting.

Earlier, the SEC had directed all concerned authorities to check possible duplicate names in the voter lists, take appropriate precautions and take necessary action in order to maintain transparency and accuracy in the upcoming local and civic body elections in the state.

The SEC also reiterated that there is no provision to use VVPAT in these elections.

The name of a potential duplicate voter in the draft or final electoral roll of local bodies is marked with a symbol.

These potential duplicate voters will be checked locally to verify whether they are actually the same person or different persons.

"After the initial check of the name, gender, address and photograph of the voter, if they are found to be similar, an application will be taken from that voter in the prescribed format stating the exact ward, Zilla Parishad Election Division/Panchayat Samiti constituency where the voter will vote. Such a voter will not be able to vote at any of the remaining polling stations," said the statement issued by the State Election Commission.

It added that if no response is received from a voter with a possible duplicate name, an undertaking in the prescribed format will be taken from the voter, saying that the voter has not voted and will not vote at any other polling station with his name, if such a voter comes to the polling station to vote.

"Such a voter will be allowed to vote only after strict identification," it said.

"There is no provision for the use of VVPAT in the laws or rules related to local body elections. Moreover, with some exceptions, almost all local body elections are conducted according to the multi-member ward system. For this, the Technical Evaluation Committee of all the State Election Commissions of the country is studying the development of voting machines with VVPAT connection facility and their final report is not yet submitted. Therefore, at present, it is not possible to use VVPAT in these elections," another statement released by the State Election Commission said.

- IANS