Punjab's local body elections to be held on February 14

The Election Commission of Punjab on Saturday has announced the schedule for elections and bye-election of eight Municipal Corporations and 109 Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats.

The voting for local body elections would take place on February 14 from 8 am to 4 pm, State Election Commissioner Jagpal Singh Sandhu said.

In an official release, Sandhu said that the process for filing nominations would commence on 30 January and February 3 would be the last date.

With the announcement of the schedule, the 'Model Code of Conduct' has come into force with immediate effect within the municipal areas of the municipalities where elections will be held. The Code of Conduct would be in force till the completion of the electoral process.

Elaborating further, Sandhu said the nominations would be scrutinised on February 4, while the date of withdrawal of nominations is February, which would also be the date of allotting the election symbols to the candidates.

Election campaigning will end on February 12 at 5:00 pm. The counting of votes would be done on February 17.

A total of 145 Returning Officers and 145 Assistant Returning Officers have been appointed for conducting the elections. 30 administration officers would be appointed as election observers and a total of six police officers will be appointed as observers to ensure the peaceful, free, and fair conduct of elections.

Sandhu said in a release that said that 400 members would be elected for 8 Municipal Corporations and 1,902 members would be elected for 109 Municipal councils/ Nagar Panchayats in the State.

As per instructions of the Punjab government 50 per cent reservation has been given for women in municipal elections.

The voter lists of Municipal Corporations, Municipal Councils, and Nagar Panchayats had been updated with a qualifying date of January 1, 2020.

There are 20,49,777 male, 18,65,354 female including 149 transgender voters totalling 39,15,280 are registered voters for these elections.

( With inputs from ANI )