Local Bodies results to be curtain raiser for 2021 battle

Poll pundits see the civic pollsas a prelude to the next year general Assembly elections as the vote share and cadre strength of the AIADMK and DMK will be revealed when the results of civic polls fought on political and civic issues are announced.

During the previous local body polls in 2011, the late leaders both AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi were involved in the strategic planning and their charisma was very much alive.

Meanwhile, the repolling ordered by the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission on Wednesday at nine booths witnessed low turn-out of voters recording 59 per cent polling. The overall polling percentage of both the phase is 77 per cent.

On the eve of counting, Tamil Nadu State Election Commission issued standing instructions for the district collectors involved in the counting mechanism of votes. TNSEC commissioner R Palaniswamy directed the district collectors of 27 districts where civic polls forrural areas have been conducted to deploy adequate staff forcounting of votes.

There should be a cleardemarcation of work and the ballot boxes stored in strong rooms should be dealt with utmost care with videography.

CCTV cameras should be installed at all counting stations and constant surveillance should be in place till the results aredeclared and certificates issued, TNSEC Commissioner said in his instructions.

The ballot papers in strong rooms should be segregated at sorting room and then moved to the counting stations in the presence of political party counting agents. No one will be allowed to use mobile phones inside the counting stations and all the proceedings of the counting should be recorded, the instruction note read.

A press release from the TNSEC said as many as 30,354 police personnel are deployed on poll duty and a three-tier security system will be in place at all counting stations. Apart from live webcasting of the poll process, the district election officers should also ensure that micro observers are deployed to monitor the counting of votes, the Election Commission said.

According to official sources, the counting of votes will be taken up at 7 am and the results are likely to be declared by late evening on Thursday. The indirect elections to the chairman and vice-chairman posts will be taken up on January 11. Each voter had cast four votes in the polls to elect panchayat ward members, gram panchayat president, panchayat union ward members and district panchayat union ward members, poll officials said.

The notification related tothe urban civic polls is likely by the end of February, where the poll schedule for 15 municipal corporations and over 100 municipalities will be notified.