Two-Phase Uttarakhand Panchayat Elections From July 24; Counting On July 31
The Uttarakhand HC stayed the panchayat elections in the state on June 23, at a time when it had already been notified by the SEC.
Published : June 28, 2025 at 4:37 PM IST
|Updated : June 28, 2025 at 7:42 PM IST
Dehradun: The Uttarakhand State Election Commission (SEC), on June 21, issued a notification for the three-tier panchayat elections in 12 districts except Haridwar. Polls would be held in two phases, and the district election officers will issue notifications on June 30.
The first phase will be conducted on July 24, followed by the second phase on July 28. The counting for all phases will be conducted on July 31. Earlier, the Uttarakhand High Court had stayed the panchayat elections in the state on June 23, at a time when it had already been notified by the SEC.
Elections will be held in 89 blocks and 7,499 gram panchayats for 66,418 posts, for which a total of 8,276 polling centres and 10,529 polling stations have been set up across the state. Over 47 lakh electors, including 24 lakh male voters and 23 lakh female voters and 374 transgender voters, will exercise their franchise. The number of voters has increased by about 10.57 per cent or 4,56,793 from the 2019 figures.
The ballot paper will be of different colours, representing each tier. Voting for the Gram Panchayat election will be cast on white ballot papers, green ballot papers will be used for the voting to elect the panchayat Pradhan, blue ballot papers will be used for the voting of panchayat members, and pink ballot papers for district panchayat members.
According to the information received from the SEC, a total of 95,909 personnel will be deployed for voting and counting. While 11,849 employees will be deployed as presiding officers, 47,910 will be acting as polling officers, and 450 as sector officers. About 35,700 security personnel will be deployed across the polling stations. A total of 5,620 vehicles, including 3,342 light vehicles and 2,278 heavy vehicles, will be deployed. The SEC will deploy 67 observers, with 55 general and 12 reserved.
To ensure a transparent and fair polling, polling and counting personnel will be deployed through a randomisation system via software.. To curb illegal liquor, narcotics, cash and other types of things during the time of the Model Code of Conduct, three teams will be formed for enforcement and seizure at the district level. The first team will be personnel from the district administration, the second team from the police department and the third team from the excise department. There will also be an in-charge of election expenditure in every district to send the report of the seizures to the commission through the district election officer.
On Friday, the high court vacated the stay on panchayat elections but asked the state government to respond in three weeks to PILs alleging irregularities in the state's reservation roster for the polls. The pleas raised serious questions over the allocation of reservation in block pramukh and district panchayat president seats. The petitioners said many seats in the reservation roster were underrepresented by the same class for a long time, in violation of Article 243 of the Constitution and Supreme Court orders passed from time to time.
After hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the reservation roster for panchayat elections in the state, a division bench comprising Chief Justice G Narendar and Justice Alok Mahara vacated the stay on panchayat elections in the state. It directed the state election commission to release a fresh schedule, extending the earlier poll schedule, which was cancelled by three days.
Advocate General S N Babulkar and Chief Standing Counsel C D Rawat said that after the report of the National Commission for Backwards Classes (NCBC), it was necessary to declare the previous reservation roster as void and issue a fresh one for the current Panchayat elections.
The commission had also announced its schedule, saying that the panchayat elections would be held in the state in two phases on July 10 and 15. However, it had to cancel the earlier schedule for the polls following the high court's stay.
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