EC announces election dates for 5 states, result on December 11
Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat, addressing the media in Delhi, announced that simultaneous elections will be held in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram, before December 15.
Maoist-affected south Chhattisgarh will vote on November 12 in the first phase of state assembly elections and voting for second phase will be held on November 20.
Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram state assembly elections will be held on November 28.
Rajasthan and Telangana will go to polls on December 7. Counting of votes to be done on 11 December for Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Telangana state assembly elections.
#ElectionCommission announces Assembly poll dates for Rajasthan, MP, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Mizoramhttps://t.co/tFHltE9XH2
— The Tribune (@thetribunechd) October 6, 2018
Mizoram’s House term will expire on December 15, 2018. Chhattisgarh’s Assembly ends on January 5, 2019. The tenure of the Madhya Pradesh House will expire on January 7, 2019. The Rajasthan assembly will expire on January 20, 2019. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao recently dissolved the House to avoid a possible clubbing of Assembly polls with the Lok Sabha elections.
Model code of conduct will immediately come into force in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram.
According to the Supreme Court orders to check criminalisation in politics there will be changes in the nomination procedure and advertisements.
Voters’ assistance booths to be set up by EC. We will have all women polling stations where even security personnel will be women. EVM and VVPAT machines will be used in the elections. These machines are the latest Mark III manufactures at BEL. Before the start of polls, mock polls will be conducted.
CEC urged political parties to use eco-friendly material to prepare campaign material.
The Congress alleged that the Election Commission’s press conference was delayed due to PM Modi’s rally. Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha has claimed that it is “Unfortunate that Election Commission postponed announcement of election dates in 5 states only to enable Modi to address his public meeting in Ajmer, Rajasthan. Very sad.”
The CEC clarified, “The change of time of the press conference was shifted to 3 pm due to several issues. It included the issue of publishing the electoral roll in one of the States. Case pending with High Court on electoral roll, final list had to be shown to the Court before publishing.”
