Elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) will be held on December 1, the Telangana State Election Commission said on Tuesday.
State Election Commissioner C Parthasarathi said that polling for the 150-member body will be held through ballot papers in view of complaints about the functioning of Electronic Voting Machines.
He told a news conference here that the counting of votes will be taken up on December 4.
He also announced that the post of Mayor has been reserved for a woman candidate from the general category. The elections are being held as per the reservation quota of the 2016 elections.
The SEC issued a poll notification on Monday while nominations will be received from Tuesday onwards. The process of filing nominations will continue till November 20.
Scrutiny will be done on November 21 while November 22 will be the last date for withdrawal of nominations. The list of contesting candidates will be published on November 22.
The polling will be held on December 1 from 7 am to 6 pm. The SEC said polling hours have been extended by one hour in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Repolling, wherever necessary, will be held on December 3.
The SEC said that the poll process will be conducted as per COVID-19 guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India. Wearing masks and maintaining social distance will be compulsory.
As per the draft voters’ lists, the te GHMC has over 74 lakh voters. The final lists of voters at the polling station level will be declared on November 21.
There are over 9,000 polling stations but the exact number will be announced later. In view of the COVID situation, the SEC has reduced the number of polling personnel at each police polling station to four from five earlier.
He said 50,000 to 55,000 polling personnel will be on duty. Employees from various departments and from other districts will be drafted for the poll duties. Parthasarathi said 25,000 to 30, 000 police personnel will also be deployed.
The term of the present GHMC body will end in February 2021. In the last MC elections in 2016, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) had scored a landslide victory by winning 99 seats.
It had swept away the main opposition Congress and the Telugu Desam Party-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP-TDP) alliance.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) however withstood the TRS wave in its stronghold of the old city to emerge as the second-largest party in the MC with 44 seats. However, the massive mandate for TRS deprived the AIMIM a kingmaker’s role, which it historically enjoyed in the municipal body.
