The stage is all set for the three-tier Panchayat elections in Odisha with the first phase of voting scheduled to be held tomorrow (February 16). The voting will be carried out at 22379 booths in 1669 Panchayats across the State.
State Election Commissioner Aditya Prasad Padhi on Tuesday said that as many as 67.51 lakh voters will exercise their franchise in the first phase polls. For the Panchayat elections, 225 platoons of police force will be deployed. Around 37,245 police personnel will be engaged in the maintenance of law and order during the polling.
According to Padhi, over 2.79 crore voters will exercise their franchise in the three-tier elections for the Panchayati Raj institutions in the State which are scheduled to be held in five phases from February 16 to 24. The centralised counting of votes will take place on February 26, 27 and 28.
For the first phase polls, 3,357 booths have been declared sensitive. The fate of 726 candidates for 200 Zilla Parishad members will be sealed in ballot boxes tomorrow.
Details:
-Voting will be held from 7 am to 1 pm
-To exercise franchise, the name of person should be present in the Ward-wise voters list/electoral roll.
-A person cast his/her vote by producing the Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC)
-Apart from EPIC, a voter can also exercise their franchise by producing the 13 different identity documents approved by the State Election Commission
. -The polls will be held with strict compliance of Covid-19 protocols. Each voter needs to strictly follow social distancing norms and use of face mask is mandatory.