State Election Commissioner P N Sreenivasachary said on Saturday that the Zilla Panchayat (ZP) and Taluk Panchayat (TP) elections will be held across the State in a phased manner in February.

Speaking to mediapersons here after a meeting with deputy commissioners, police chiefs and excise officials from the Belagavi Revenue Division, he said that election for ZP and TP seats would be held in two phases in the second and third week of February. The election calendar will be announced this month, he added.

Sreenivasachary, who reviewed the preparations being made for elections to the local bodies, said that  electronic voting machines (EVM) would be used for the polling.

The voter rolls were finalised on December 27, 2015, but names can be included in the voters list till the last date for filing nomination papers. These names will be included in the supplementary voters list. There could be a 10 per cent increase in the number of voters in some districts, he added.

Meetings will be held in all revenue division headquarters to review preparations being made for the elections. Meeting for Mysuru revenue division would be held on January 4 and for Bengaluru on January 6 and Kalaburagi on January 8.

After the revenue division meets, a meeting would be held with the Director General of Police Omprakash, following which the election schedule would be announced.

Code of conduct
Officials have been instructed to ensure strict implementation of the election model code of conduct. Elections would held for as many as 1,083 ZP seats and 3,903 TP seats.

More than 2.76 crore voters are expected to exercise their franchise in this election, he said.