Goa: Zilla panchayat polls postponed to March 22

PANAJI: The polling date for the Zilla Panchayat elections has been postponed from March 15 to March 22 owing to celebrations like Holi and Shigmo coinciding the scheduled week, chief minister Pramod Sawant said.
“Earlier the date proposed was March 15. Holi starts on March 9 followed by the Shigmo festival. Considering that it is celebrated in every village, we decided to postpone the polls,” he said.
He said that the notification announcing the date was to arrive on Wednesday, but owing to the postponement of the polls, the fresh dates will be notified soon.
“I have approached the state election commission in this regard. They have tentatively decided to shift the dates. The notification and reservation announcing the same will be released soon,” he said.
The polls to be held on party lines will involve all 50 Zilla Panchayat constituencies - 25 in the north and remaining in South Goa. TOI was the first to report that the ZP elections would be held on party lines.
In 2015, then chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar had decided to conduct ZP elections along party lines. The Goa Panchayat Raj Act was accordingly amended in March that year. The provision, however, was not extended to village panchayat elections.