• Source:JND
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Uttarakhand Panchayat Elections: The State Election Commission is reportedly facing challenges on several fronts in conducting the local body election in Uttarakhand. The duplication in voter lists and provisions of the Panchayati Raj Act have increased the confusion in the ongoing three-tier panchayat election. The local body election is being held in the remaining 12 districts of the state except Haridwar. Apart from this, the continuous rainfall and landslide cases in several regions in the past few weeks have also troubled the poll body.

The process of three-tier panchayat elections has been facing many challenges for many years. The panchayats were earlier handed over to administrators due to the delays in the election. There were attempts to bring an ordinance to make the tenure of administrators one year in the Panchayati Raj Act; however, it could not be implemented. As a result, three-tier panchayats remained without a chief for about two weeks. This was the first occasion after the formation of the state when panchayats of Uttarakhand faced a constitutional crisis.

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The officials stated that duplication in the voter lists of panchayats has created a problem. They further stated that candidates of several districts are also registered in the voter list of urban bodies. Apart from this, there are also voters whose names are registered at two places. The guidelines from the Election Commission suggest that the name of a voter can be registered at only one place. However, the officials clarified that such nominations have already been cancelled in some districts.

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They further stated that Section 9 (13) of the Panchayat Raj Act states that a person with a name appearing in the voter list of the Panchayat will be able to contest the election as well as vote. Apart from this, Section 9 (6 and 7) related to voter registration provides that the name of a person should not appear in two places in the voter list.