Campaign ends in Arunachal; 8.3L voters to decide civic, panchayat polls on Dec 15

Itanagar, Dec 13: With less than two days left for the municipal and panchayat elections in Arunachal Pradesh, campaigning for the December 15 polls concluded on Saturday.

Panchayat and civic elections to the Itanagar Municipal Corporation (IMC) and Pasighat Municipal Council (PMC) will be held from 7 am to 4 pm, State Election Commissioner (SEC) Rinchin Tashi said.

In an official order, the SEC announced that electioneering ended at 4 pm on Saturday and imposed a 48-hour silence period, during which no public meetings, rallies or election-related activities will be permitted.

Even before polling, as many as 63 candidates have been elected unopposed in both municipal and rural elections. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured 58 zilla parishad seats uncontested, while one candidate from the National People’s Party (NPP) was also elected unopposed.

Additionally, 5,037 BJP candidates for gram panchayat member posts have been declared elected without contest. Four BJP candidates were also elected unopposed to the IMC.

According to the SEC, 440 candidates will contest 186 zilla parishad seats, while 39 candidates are in the fray for 16 IMC wards and 21 candidates for eight PMC wards.

The commission further noted that 13 gram panchayat constituencies received no nominations, while all nominations in 14 other constituencies were rejected during scrutiny. Polling in the Dumba Singpho gram panchayat constituency has been countermanded following the death of a validly nominated candidate.

A total of 8,31,648 voters — including 7,59,210 for panchayat elections and 72,438 for municipal polls — are eligible to cast their votes across 2,171 polling stations for rural elections, 67 for IMC and 12 for PMC.

Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will be used for municipal elections, while ballot boxes will be deployed for panchayat polls. Counting of votes is scheduled for December 20.

With inputs from PTI