CHENNAI: As per the directions of the Supreme Court, the State Election Commissioner R Palaniswamy on Saturday notified the elections for rural bodies except the nine districts where delimitation is yet to be completed. The elections will take place in two phases on December 27 and 30.
This time too elections for urban local bodies have not been announced due to 'administrative reasons'. The SEC said the notification for urban local bodies would be issued at a later date.
Just ahead of the SEC notifying the elections, DMK organisation secretary RS Bharathi submitted a petition before the Commissioner urging him to conduct the elections as per the directions of the SC given on December 5. When asked about the petition, the SEC said: "The Commission will look into it."
The counting will take place on January 2, the SEC said elections for rural local bodies in nine districts - Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, Vellore, Thirupathur, Ranipet, Villupuram, Kallakurichi, Tirunelveli and Tenkasi would not be held now. In the 27 districts, the elections would take place.
Palaniswami said, in all, direct elections would be held for 91,975 rural local bodies. This includes 27 district panchayats and 515 district panchayat Ward members. Besides, elections to 314 panchyat unions, 5,090 panchayat union ward councillors, 9,624 village panchayat presidents and 76,746 village panchayat Ward member posts.
In the first phase, 1.30 core voters and in the second phase 1.28core voters, would be exercising their franchise. Over four lakh election personnel would be engaged in poll works. For each district, one IAS office would be appointed as observers.
Earlier, the elections to local bodies were scheduled to be held on October 17 and 19, 2016. However, the Madras High Court had quashed the two notifications issued by the SEC following a petition from the DMK. Since then, the elections were postponed due to legal process.