Bhubaneswar: The state government has decided to amend the rules for the three-tier general election to Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), 2022.
The Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water department has issued three draft rules for conducting the Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti and Zilla Parishad polls. As per the draft rules, the counting of votes will be done on a date scheduled by the State Election Commission (SEC).
In the last Panchayat polls, the counting was done the same day of the poll. But this time, the counting is most likely to be done in a different date, to be fixed by the SEC. The result may be declared one day after the completion of the polls in all places of the state, sources said.
Earlier, the SEC had asked the district Collectors to ascertain the availability of ballot boxes, both in good as well as repairable condition.
The commission further proposed to have central counting at Block headquarters instead of counting at booth level in the next Panchayat polls. For this purpose, the requirement of ballot boxes would be equal to the total number of booths in the district. Therefore, there will be substantial increase in the number of ballot boxes that will be used in these elections, the source said.
The commission has also asked the Panchayati Raj department to complete reservation and delimitation of wards, which is necessary to conduct the polls.