Bypolls to 54 vacant panchayat seats in Arunachal on Nov 6

Itanagar: The Arunachal Pradesh State Election Commission (SEC) on Friday announced byelections to 54 vacancies of gram panchayat constituencies and two vacant seats in zila parishad constituencies to be held on November 6.
The seats fell vacant due to various reasons including death and resignation from the posts, state Election Commissioner Rinchin Tashi said at a press meet here.
The Commission would issue a public notice in this regard on October 9, while the last date of filing nominations has been fixed on October 16.
Scrutiny of papers would be held on October 18 while the last date of withdrawal of papers is October 21, the SEC said adding, the counting of votes would be held on November 8.
Arunachal Pradesh has a total of 25 zila parishads with 242 constituencies and 2,115 gram panchayats with 8,145 seats. Election to 40-gram panchayat seats and one in zila parishad in Vijoynagar administrative sub-division under Changlang district has, however, been kept pending due to law and order and other administrative issues, Tashi said. “As per the report of the district election officer, circumstances are not conducive for holding elections at Vijoynagar,” the SEC said without elaborating on the issues.
With the announcement of elections, the Model Code of Conduct came into force from Friday to ensure free, fair and peaceful byelections, and shall be applied to all political parties, candidates, MPs, ministers, MLAs, Advisors, employees of state and central governments, CPSUs and local bodies, Tashi said.
“Over 500 election officials will be engaged for the election process which will be conducted in 73 polling stations in 23 districts of the state,” the SEC informed, adding that security assessment would be done by the respective district election officer as per prevailing situations and inputs given by respective SPs.
The special summary revision of the electoral rolls of the vacant panchayat constituencies concerned had been done with respect to January 1, 2023 as the qualifying date and the final publication of electoral rolls was completed on September 25 this year, he said. PTI