Sikkim Municipal, Nagar Panchayat Polls 2021: Voting on March 31; check full election schedule

Sikkim municipal election 2021: After a long due on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, the State Election Commission in Sikkim has announced the schedule for Municipal and Nagar Panchayat elections in the state. This time, the elections are going to be different as candidates won’t be able to contest poll on the symbol of political parties.

The P S Tamang-headed Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) government had amended the Sikkim Municipalities Act, 2007 in September 2020. The new rules do not allow a candidate to contest elections with direct or indirect support from any political party.

The state’s Election Commissioner Nim Lhamu Ethenpa informed that the elections to 51 Municipal wards and Nagar Panchayats will be held on March 31.

Ethenpa said that the last date for filing nominations is March 8, scrutiny of documents will take place on March 9 and the last date for withdrawal of the nominations is March 13, reported PTI.

These 51 wards which are going to polls include 19 wards in Gangtok Municipal Corporation, 5 in Singtam nagar panchayat, 5 in Jorethang nagar panchayat, 5 in Rangpo nagar panchayat, 7 in Namchi nagar panchayat, 5 in Geyzing nagar panchayat and 5 in Mangan nagar panchayat.

According to the state election commission, the counting of votes will take place on April 3.

The last time, the Himalayan state went to the municipal polls was in 2015 while the panchayat polls were held in 2017.

The tenure of municipal bodies in Sikkim had ended on October 16, 2020, but the election was delayed due to the pandemic. The state government had appointed administrators for all urban bodies to look after day-to-day functioning during the interim period.