Single phase poll for TN urban civic bodies on Feb 19

Ordinary election to the urban local bodies in Tamil Nadu will be held on February 19 and counting of votes will be taken up on February 22, the State Election Commission announced on Wednesday.

The filing of nomination for the single phase poll will commence from January 28 and would go on till February 4. The nomination papers will be scrutinised on February 5 and February 7 will be the last day for withdrawal of nominations, State Election Commissioner V Palanikumar said while announcing the election schedule.

The announcement of the poll schedule comes a day after the Madras High Court on Tuesday gave its nod to conduct the elections to urban local bodies and said that it will monitor the polls.

Holding that the elections cannot be ordered to be deferred, the court had dismissed a batch of PILs on the issue.

Counting of votes will take place on February 22 and results announced the same day, Palanikumar said.

Indirect elections for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor and chairperson and vice chairperson of municipalities will be held on March 4. The newly elected members will assume office on March 2, he said. Speaking to reporters here, Palanikumar said arrangement has been made to ensure that Coronavirus infected persons too exercised their franchise towards the close of the election day.

Polls will be held to 21 corporations, 138 municipalities, 490 town panchayats and 649 other urban local bodies in Tamil Nadu. The model code of conduct has come into force from today.

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