The State Election Commission (SEC) on Friday notified polls for
Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), which will be held on January
8.

Since the tenure of the corporation ends this month, the
Government will appoint an administrator to run the affairs till the new
council takes charge after the election of Mayor and Deputy Mayor
concludes in February. The BMC polls were delayed because of cyclone and
flood rehabilitation and other technical obstacles, such as
delimitation and re-organisation.

Announcing the election
schedule, SEC Ajit Kumar Tripathy said the nomination process will start
on December 16 while scrutiny will take place on December 23.
Withdrawal of the nominations is scheduled on December 26 when the final
list of eligible candidates will be brought out.

 While polling
will be held from 8 am to 5 pm on January 8, the election for Mayor is
scheduled on January 17. The election for Deputy Mayor will be held on
February 5.

Election will be held for 67 wards where as many as
666 booths have been constituted. The eligible number of voters stands
at 6,90,239.  Of the 67 wards, 34 will be reserved for women, as per the
new reservation policy of the State Government. Of the 34, three are
for Scheduled Castes, two for Scheduled Tribes, 10 for Socially and
Economically Backward Classes and another 19 are for general category
candidates.

With the announcement of the elections, the model code
of conduct has come into effect and it will remain in force till
January 9. “During this period, the Government and the corporation
cannot take up any new work within the limits of BMC as well as the
neighbouring gram panchayats.

However, ongoing works and relief and assistance measures can continue,”  Tripathy said.

The
commission has appointed two IAS officers as poll observers while three
Odisha Finance Service officers have been designated as expenditure
observers. The ceiling for expenditure is `50,000.

Special
Secretary of the SEC Rabindra Nath Sahu said election to Cuttack
Municipal Corporation will be held at a later stage since its tenure
ends in February. Asked if convicted politicians can contest, he said
the necessary Acts of both the Centre and the State are yet to be
amended as per the Supreme Court directive.