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.