MCD polls: 42 counting centres, strong rooms to be set up across Delhi

New Delhi [India], November 19 : As the elections for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) are around the corner, the poll panel on Friday finalized a list of 42 counting centres and strong rooms in consultation with respective District Election Officers and Returning Officers.
According to the Delhi State Election Commission, the identified centres will also be used to impart training on the use of electronic voting machines (EVM), roles and responsibilities of various electoral functionaries such as sector officers, polling officials etc. The Commission has already deployed Master Trainers for this purpose.
As per past practice, these selected counting centres are located in various government educational institutions such as ITIs, schools etc. The strong rooms shall be used for the safe and secure storage of EVMs, said the Commission.
The Commission this time is stressing more on ensuring the maximum use of postal ballots by service personnel who are deployed on election-related duties. In this regard, the Commission appointed a Nodal Officer to facilitate the processing of postal ballots. Since a significant fraction of election functionaries consist of police personnel, special care will be taken to ensure that all such police personnel on election duty are facilitated to enable them to cast their vote with ease and convenience.
Delhi Police after consultation with the Commission has appointed a DCP level officer as Nodal officer to coordinate and facilitate casting of votes through postal ballots.
Further, the Commission intensified its drive to ensure free and fair elections by strictly enforcing the Model Code of Conduct. In this regard, a total no of 1,18,123 posters, banners, hoardings and small boards were removed across Delhi on November 18 taking the cumulative figure to 9,54,580.
The elections for the 250-ward Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) will be held on December 4 while the counting of votes will be done on December 7.
Meanwhile, the Delhi State Election Commission informed that 1,169 nominations were cancelled after scrutiny for the upcoming Municipal Corporation elections.
The scrutiny of the nomination papers was carried out on Wednesday.
In 65 cases, the final decision on the nomination was taken after supporting documents.
"As many as 65 cases, which required further adjudication under rule 22 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Election of Councilors) Rules, 2012 to adduce more supportive evidences to the claims of the contesting candidates in the proceedings that are of quasi-judicial in nature, have also been finally disposed of on Thursday," stated MCD.
The State Election Commission received total 2,585 nominations, out of which 1416 nominations were found valid--674 male and 742 female. The Commission received nomination papers from 2021 candidates.
There are 250 valid candidates each from Bharatiya Janata Party and Aam Aadmi Party. As per information, three nominations of Congress were cancelled in MCD elections, Congress will contest only on 247 seats.
The candidates were rejected eight grounds--incomplete nomination forms, proposers incomplete/ proposer of another ward, missing affidavits, multiple nominations, covering candidates, non-submission of valid caste certificate, invalid/incomplete form, and no security deposit.
"A total of Rs. 75,07,500 has been realized by the Commission on account of the nomination fee deposited by the candidates," said the Commission.
The last date for withdrawal of nominations is November 19.
The polls to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi on December 4 is shaping up to be a two-way contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which currently holds the civic reins in the national capital, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is in power in the state.