During the panchayat elections in October 2019. (Express Photo: Shuaib Masoodi)

Panchyat bypolls for vacant seats will be held in Jammu and Kashmir in eight phases starting March 5, Chief Electoral Officer Shailendra Kumar announced on Thursday. This will be the first major poll exercise in J&K since the scraping of the special status in August last year.

Kumar announced that panchayat bypolls in 274 blocks of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir will be held for elections of 1,011 Sarpanches and 11,639 panches.

Announcing that Model Code of Conduct comes into force with immediate effect, he said the elections will be held in eight phases. The first phase of polling will take place on March 5, followed by the second phase on March 7, third on March 9, fourth on March 12, fifth on March 14, sixth on March 16, seventh on March 18 and eighth on March 20.

Pointing out that the bypolls are being held in panch and sarpanch constituencies left vacant during the last general election held November-December 2018, the CEO said that those elected now will have a term of the remaining term of the panchayat and not the full term of five years.