MCD polls in Delhi on Dec 4, counting on 7th

The polling dates for municipal election in Delhi were announced on Friday. The MCD polls in Delhi will be held on December 4 while the votes will be counted on December 7, State Election Commissioner Vijay Dev announced on Friday.

The Model Code of Conduct comes into force in the national capital from Friday itself, he said.

“Voting for the municipal polls in Delhi will be held on December 4 while the results will be announced on December 7. The filing of nominations will begin from November 7 and the last date for the same is November 14,” Dev said at a press conference.

Last week, gearing up for preparations of the municipal elections in the national capital, the SEC had directed officials to prepare draft lists of polling stations as per new delimitation of wards.

Noting that the elections to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) are likely to be held in near future, the commission has also directed that all polling stations should be located on ground floors and each polling station should not have more than 1,500 voters.

“The State Election Commission of Delhi has directed that the draft lists of polling stations shall be prepared and verified by the respective returning officers (ROs) as per new delimitation of wards and the same are published in concerned offices for inviting suggestions and objections,” the commission said in an official order. “The returning officers are requested to publish the draft lists of polling stations for the assigned wards at their respective offices at a conspicuous place to which aspiring candidates and general public could have an easy access, on all working days during office hours as per schedule,” it added.

The SEC has directed that while preparing list of polling stations for a ward, care has to be taken that all polling stations are located on the ground floor of a building in the ward.

“All sites for polling stations should be located in the same building within the ward. Each polling station should not have more than 1,500 voters,” it said.

After the Centre notified the delimitation of municipal wards, activities related to civic elections in Delhi have started picking up the pace.

In the last two weeks, the State Election Commission has issued numerous notifications and orders including reservation of municipal wards, eligibility criteria for voters and appointments of nodal and sub-nodal officers for each zone, among others.

MCD polls are expected to take place at the fag end of 2022 or early next year. Municipal polls were slated to be held in Delhi in April this year. They were put on hold hours before the then Delhi State Election Commissioner S K Srivastava was to announce the schedule on March 8 due to the Centre’s plan to reunify the three civic bodies.

The three civic bodies were reunified by the Centre in May this year and the exercise for delimitation of wards was started in July 2022.