ITANAGAR, 6 Oct: The State Election Commission (SEC) on Friday announced by-elections to 54 vacancies in gram panchayat constituencies and two vacant seats in zilla parishad constituencies to be held on 6 November.
The seats fell vacant due to various reasons, including death and resignation from the posts, State Election Commissioner Rinchin Tashi told a press conference here.
The commission will issue a public notice in this regard on 9 October, and the last date of filing of nominations has been fixed on 16 October.
Scrutiny of papers is scheduled to be done on 18 October, while the last date of withdrawal of papers is 21 October, the SEC said, adding that the counting of votes would be held on 8 November.
Arunachal Pradesh has a total of 25 zilla parishads with 242 constituencies, and 2,115 gram panchayats with 8,145 seats.
Elections for 40 gram panchayat seats and one zilla parishad seat in Vijaynagar administrative subdivision in Changlang district has, however, been kept pending due to law and order and other administrative issues, Tashi said.
“As per the report of the district election officer, circumstances are not conducive for holding elections in Vijaynagar,” the SEC said, without elaborating the issues.
With the announcement of the elections, the model code of conduct (MCC) came into force from Friday, with a view to ensure free, fair and peaceful by-elections, and shall be applied to all political parties, candidates, MPs, ministers, MLAs, advisers, employees of state and central governments, CPSUs and local bodies, Tashi said.
“Over 500 election officials will be engaged for the election process, which will be conducted in 73 polling stations in 23 districts of the state,” the SEC informed, adding that security assessment would be done by the respective district election officer as per prevailing situations and inputs given by respective superintendents of police (SP).
The special summary revision of the electoral rolls of the vacant panchayat constituencies concerned had been done with 1 January, 2023 as the qualifying date, and the final publication of the electoral rolls was completed on 25 September this year, he said.
The state assembly on 15 March, 2018 passed the Arunachal Pradesh Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill to do away with the the anchal samiti, the intermediate level of the three-tier panchayati raj system, and set up a two-tier system in the state.
This was done following the 73rd amendment of the Constitution that enables a state having less than 20 lakh population not to have the intermediate level.
Arunachal has a population of 13.84 lakhs.
The last panchayat elections in the state were held in December 2020 and by-elections were held in July 2022 for one zilla parishad and 130 gram panchayat seats, respectively. (PTI)
