Polls for 109 urban local bodies in Odisha to be held on March 24

The Odisha State Election Commission (SEC) on Friday announced that election for 109 urban local bodies (ULBs) in the state will be held on March 24.

State Election Commissioner, Aditya Prasad Padhi said the elections will he held for 47 municipalities, 59 notified area councils (NACS) and three municipal corporations of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Berhampur. The election results will be declared on March 26, he added.

The election officer will issue formal notification for the election on February 28 while candidates can file their nominations from March 2 to 7. The candidates can withdraw their nomination papers by March 14, Padhi said.

He informed that the model code of conduct will remain in force only in the jurisdictions of the ULBs till March 26 from Friday.

For the first time, there will be direct election for the post of Mayor and Chairperson, and none-of-the-above (NOTA) option will be used in the poll. This time, the submission of affidavits by the candidates has been made compulsory, the State Election Commissioner added.

More than 41 lakh voters are eligible to cast their votes in the urban body elections. Nearly 27 lakh voters, 3,030 booths and 1,731 wards are there in 106 municipalities and NACs while there are 14.26 lakh voters, 168 wards and 1407 booths in the three municipal corporations.

Two EVMs will be used in each booth -- one for Mayor or Chairperson and another for corporators and councillors.

Padhi said the term of maximum ULBs in Odisha ended in September 2018 while the term of Hindol and Attabira NACs has not been completed so far. The newly constituted NACs at Remuna, Chandbali, Dhamnagar and Bijepur will go to polls for the first time, he added.

The term of Berhampur Municipal Corporation ended in September 2018 while the tenure of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and Cuttack Municipal Corporation ended in January and February 2019, respectively.