Ballot papers to have photos of candidates

Council elections: Voting from 8 am to 4 pm on Dec 27, counting of votes on Dec 30

For the first time, the photographs of candidates will also appear on the ballot papers along with their name during the forthcoming elections to the State Legislative Council.

The election to the Council from Dakshina Kannada local bodies’ constituency will be held from 8 am to 4 pm on December 27, Deputy Commissioner A B Ibrahim, who is also the Returning Officer for the election, has said.

The term of MLCs elected from local bodies’ constituency of Dakshina Kannada – Prathapchandra Shetty and Kota Srinivas Poojary – will end on January 5.

Briefing media persons here, Ibrahim said the model code of conduct is already in force following the announcement of the election. It is for the first time that the photographs of candidates will appear on the ballot papers in an election in the State.

The candidates can submit their nominations from December 2 and the last date to submit the papers is December 9, he added.

The nomination papers will be scrutinised on December 10 and the last date to withdraw the papers is December 12. The counting of votes will take place on December 30. 

The total number of voters in the constituency is 6,559. Among them, 3,191 are men and 3,368 are women voters. The constituency has 410 polling booths.  The number of voters in the district is 3,844 and Udupi district has 2,715 voters. The number of polling booths in Udupi district is 166 and in Dakshina Kannada it is 244.

The deputy commissioner said that 10 proposers should sign in the nomination papers of the candidates. The deposit amount is Rs 10,000. If the candidate is from SC/ST community, then the deposit amount is Rs 5,000, he added.

The practice of taking possession of official vehicles of the elected representatives, including ministers, MLAs and others, has been discontinued.

In the elections to the Legislative Council from the local bodies, a provision has been made for the representatives for using their official vehicles, despite the model of conduct coming into force in view of elections. No new projects will be initiated during the model code of conduct period, he said.

Ibrahim said that panchayat development officers (PDOs) of gram panchayats, chief officers of urban local bodies and Mangaluru City Corporation commissioner have been directed to clear all illegal hoardings and cutouts and also hoardings erected by the political parties in their jurisdiction. Political parties have to take permission from the returning officers to erect hoardings, he stated. 

Preferential order
Additional Deputy Commissioner Kumar said voters have to give order of preferential in the ballot papers in the order of 1, 2, 3, 4 etc.

The ballot papers will be invalid if the voters fail to give the preferential order. The papers will also have a NOTA option for the voters, the additional deputy commissioneradded.