Ludhiana civic body elections on Feb 24, counting on 27

CHANDIGARH: Ludhiana Municipal Corporation elections will be held on February 24 and counting of votes will be on February 27. The election schedule was announced by the Punjab State Election Commission on Thursday.
Elections are due for Municipal Corporation in Ludhiana, besides one ward of Municipal Corporation in Moga and bypolls to the 26 wards of various municipals councils/nagar panchayats.
The nomination filing process with regard to these elections would commence on February 8 and will last till February 13. Nominations would not be filed on February 10 and 11 due to government holidays. February 14 being a public holiday, the nomination papers would be scrutinised on February 15. The date of withdrawing the nominations would be February 16, 2018 and on the same day election symbols would be allotted. The polling would be held on February 24.
Last week, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had said that the elections were likely to be held before February 24 and the government will go in for cabinet expansion once the election process is completed. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) had criticised the government for suggesting dates to the Election Commission.
The counting of the votes for Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana would start on February 27 and the counting of votes relating to the bypolls would start immediately after the completion of election process on February 24, 2018 and the results would be announced on the same day.
In Municipal Corporation Ludhiana, around 10.50 lakh voters would cast their ballot to elect their representatives from 95 wards out of which 5.67 are male, 4.82 lakh are female while 23 belong to the third gender.
The State Election Commission has issued instructions to the local government department to issue no objection certificates to the prospective candidates on time so as to ensure that the candidates don't have to encounter any difficulty at the time of nomination filing.
The model code of conduct in the areas falling under the jurisdiction of concerned Municipal Corporation and Municipal Councils/Nagar Panchayats has come into effect immediately which would be in force till the completion of the electoral process.