Gujarat State Election Commission (SEC) today announced that elections to 10,318 gram panchayats in the state will be held on December 27, and the results will be announced on December 29.
The notification announcing commencement of election process will be issued on December 5, while the last date for filing nominations is December 10, Varesh Sinha, State Election Commissioner, said.
"Voters can exercise their franchise between 8 AM to 5 PM. Counting of votes as well as declaration of results will take place on December 29," he said.
As per the Panchayats Department, there are 14,017 gram panchayats in the state while the total number of villages is 18,584. The tenure of 10,318 panchayats is ending in December.
Gram panchayat elections are not fought on party symbols. Each voter is required to cast two votes, one for Sarpanch's post and another for electing panchayat member from his/her ward.
According to Mr Sinha, the total number of registered voters for these polls is over 1.89 crore, including 90.82 lakh women. Polling will be held at 25,454 booths in 91,002 wards. Ballot boxes will be used instead of EVMs, he said, adding, "We do not have enough EVMs, so we will use more than 61,000 ballot boxes. Online voting facility is also not available, however, we will provide NOTA (none of the above) option for the first time in panchayat elections in Gujarat."
In another first, declarations submitted by candidates will be uploaded for public viewing on SEC's website.
SBI Fails To Submit Details Of Poll Bonds As Supreme Court Deadline Ends Election Dates For Five States To Be Announced Today Ahead Of Announcing Poll Schedule For 5 States, Election Body To Hold Meet 3 Grams Of Explosives Per Pager: Israel's Complex Op To Hurt Hezbollah 9 Dead, 2,800 Hurt As Pagers Explode Across Lebanon, Hezbollah Blames Israel "Wear Proper Undergarments": Delta Airlines' New Memo For Flight Attendants Delhi High Court Permits Ashneer Grover, Wife To Travel To Doha And UK IIT Kanpur Introduces Continuing Medical Education Program New XEC Covid Variant Spreads To 27 Countries, Here's What We Know So Far Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.