Arunachal Pradesh: 63 candidates elected unopposed ahead of municipal, panchayat elections

Pasighat: The Arunachal Pradesh State Election Commission (SEC) announced on November 30 that 63 candidates have been elected unopposed in the upcoming municipal and panchayat elections scheduled for December 15.

The SEC stated that the ruling BJP won 58 zila parishad constituencies without opposition, while one seat went uncontested to a National People’s Party (NPP) candidate.

In addition, four BJP nominees were elected unopposed to the Itanagar Municipal Corporation (IMC).

The deadline for withdrawing nominations ended on Saturday.

Following this, 440 candidates will compete for 186 zila parishad seats, 39 candidates for 16 IMC wards, and 21 candidates for eight Pasighat Municipal Council (PMC) wards.

A total of 600 nominations were submitted for 245 zila parishad constituencies, 10,550 for 8,182 gram panchayat seats, 101 for 20 IMC wards, and 28 for eight PMC wards before the November 24 deadline.

Scrutiny of nominations was completed on November 26.

The commission reported that 13 gram panchayat constituencies received no nominations, while 14 others were rejected during scrutiny.

Polling in Dumba Singpho gram panchayat constituency has been canceled after the death of a validly nominated candidate.

These numbers are provisional, and the vacant seats will be filled in by-elections later.

The state will hold its 12th panchayat elections and the third municipal elections for Itanagar and Pasighat on December 15.

In total, 8,31,648 voters are eligible to vote, including 7,59,210 for panchayat seats and 72,438 for municipal seats.

Voting will take place across 2,171 polling stations for rural bodies, 67 for IMC, and 12 for PMC. Electronic Voting Machines will be used in municipal polls, while ballot boxes will be used for panchayat elections.

Vote counting is scheduled for December 20.