The State Election Commission has announced the BBMP council elections schedule, with March 28th 2010 as the day of elections. The election code of conduct has been in force since March 7th and will go on till April 6th.

The last date for filing nominations is March 15th while the nominations will be scrutinised on March 17th. The last date for withdrawing nomination papers is March 19th. After polling takes place on March 28th between 7 am and 5 pm, counting will be done a week later on April 5th. If necessary, repolling will take place on April 4th.

Interestingly, March 28th falls on a Sunday, a general public holiday. Citizens groups are going to be happy with this, because a higher voter turnout is more likely.

This will also be the first time that Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) will be used for the city council elections. For this, the SEC has purchased 9500 EVMs.

Earlier, elections were slated to be held on February 21st, but after the Supreme Court quashed the wards reservation list, the elections were cancelled by the SEC.

Even as the state government approached the High Court (HC) to seek more time to hold the elections, the court issued an order saying that elections have to be held by March 30th 2010.

The state government then went to the Supreme Court (SC) to ask for more time to hold the elections, citing non-availability of schools and teachers due to examinations as a reason. The SC rejected the plea and asked the state to go back to the HC. The HC’s order remained the same, that elections should be held before March 30th this year.

Meanwhile, the urban development department issued a draft notification of the ward reservation list on February 23rd and the final list was released on March 3rd.

Even as some citizens have filed a petition in the HC challenging some of the ward reservations, this time elections are expected to take place as announced.   ⊕