Northeast Desk, 7th October: In a significant announcement, the Arunachal Pradesh State Election Commission (SEC) has declared by-elections for 54 gram panchayat constituencies and two vacant seats in zila parishad constituencies, scheduled to be held on November 6. These vacancies arose due to various reasons, including deaths and resignations from these posts.
State Election Commissioner Rinchin Tashi conveyed during a press conference that the Commission would issue a public notice regarding these by-elections on October 9. The last date for filing nominations has been set for October 16, followed by the scrutiny of papers on October 18. The last date for the withdrawal of papers is October 21, and the actual counting of votes is slated for November 8.
Arunachal Pradesh boasts a total of 25 zila parishads with 242 constituencies and 2,115 gram panchayats with 8,145 seats. However, elections for 40 gram panchayat seats and one zila parishad seat in the Vijoynagar administrative sub-division under Changlang district have been kept pending due to law and order and administrative concerns, according to Tashi. The SEC highlighted that the circumstances were not conducive for holding elections at Vijoynagar.
With the official announcement of these elections, the Model Code of Conduct came into effect from Friday. This code aims to ensure free, fair, and peaceful by-elections, and it will be applicable to all political parties, candidates, MPs, ministers, MLAs, Advisors, employees of state and central governments, CPSUs, and local bodies.
The SEC further revealed that over 500 election officials would be engaged in the election process, which is set to take place across 73 polling stations in 23 districts of the state. Security assessments will be conducted by respective district election officers in alignment with the prevailing situations and inputs provided by respective superintendents of police (SPs).
The special summary revision of electoral rolls for the concerned vacant panchayat constituencies had been carried out with a qualifying date of January 1, 2023. The final publication of electoral rolls was completed on September 25 this year, as informed by the SEC.
This move follows the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly’s decision on March 15, 2018, to pass the Arunachal Pradesh Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill. The amendment sought to eliminate the Anchal Samiti, an intermediate level of the three-tier panchayati raj system, and establish a two-tier system in the state. This decision was driven by the 73rd Amendment of the Constitution, allowing states with populations less than 20 lakh to forgo the intermediate level. Arunachal Pradesh, with a population of 13.84 lakh, adopted this approach. The last panchayat elections in the state were held in December 2020, with by-elections conducted in July 2022 for one zila parishad and 130 gram panchayat seats.