Civic election date in Puducherry soon

With the State Election Commission (SEC) releasing the guidelines to be followed for canvassing and filing nominations for the local body elections, the date of the civic polls in Puducherry is expected to be announced soon, officials said here on Thursday.

It may be noted that after 2006 local body elections have not been held in the union territory and the Supreme Court in a case in this regard directed the holding of the same and complete all the preparations and formalities by October this year. Following this, Roy P Thomas was appointed the State Election Commissioner and he expedited the works in this regard. Delimitation of wards, reservation for women, SC/BC were completed and the required Electronic Voting Machines were brought to Puducherry from Telangana and Karnataka.

Now, the SEC has issued guidelines for carrying out the election campaign by following COVID protocol. As per the directions only one person can accompany a candidate to file the nomination paper. In case a person infected with COVID wanted to contest, the person proposing his name could submit the nomination paper on his/her behalf. Scrutiny on the nomination papers would be held ward wise when the candidate or his proposer should be present. A candidate along with five persons could undertake election campaign and meetings could be arranged following COVID appropriate behaviour. With all these arrangements, the date of local body elections is expected to be announced any time now.