The schedule for the three-tier panchayat elections in Uttarakhand was officially announced on Saturday by the state Election Commissioner, Sushil Kumar. Except for Haridwar, the polling will be held in the remaining 12 districts of the state in two phases next month.

Voting in the first phase will be held across 49 development blocks on July 10, while polling in the second phase will take place in 40 development blocks on July 15. The counting of votes will begin on July 19.

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The election process will commence on June 25 with the filing of nominations.

With the announcement of polls, the Model Code of Conduct has come into effect across the state, barring urban areas and the Haridwar District. As many as 47.77 lakh voters in the state will exercise their franchise to fill 66,418 positions, including Gram Pradhan, Gram Panchayat members, Kshetra Panchayat members, and Zila Panchayat members.

After the term of panchayats in the 12 districts (excluding Haridwar) ended last year, administrators were appointed to oversee the development works. However, elections could not be conducted even during the six-month administrator tenure, leaving the panchayats without elected leadership for almost two weeks. Seeing the evolving constitutional crisis, the government assigned officials to oversee panchayat operations earlier this month and finalised reservation rosters for the posts and locations.

On June 19, the reservation list for panchayats was sent to the State Election Commission. This fueled expectations of an imminent election announcement. Subsequently, on Saturday, the government sent the proposed election schedule to the commission.

Following deliberations with the state government, the commission promptly issued the official notification. Addressing the media at the State Election Commission headquarters, State Election Commissioner Sushil Kumar announced the election dates.

Panchayat Election Schedule

- June 25–28: Filing of nomination papers (from 8 AM to 4 PM)


- June 29–July 1: Scrutiny of nomination papers


- July 2: Withdrawal of nominations (from 8 AM to 3 PM)


- July 3: Election symbols allotted for the first phase


- July 10: Voting for the first phase (from 8 AM to 5 PM)


- July 8: Election symbols allotted for the second phase


- July 15: Voting for the second phase (from 8 AM to 5 PM)


- July 19: Counting of votes begins from 8 AM; results to be announced the same day.

The total number of voters is 47,77,072, which includes 24,65,702 male voters, 23,10,996 female voters and 374 voters from other categories. There are 8,276 polling stations and voting will take place at 10,529 polling booths.

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A total of 95,909 officials and staff will be deployed for election duty.