The State Election Commission (SEC) on Saturday held up the panchayat elections in Odisha's Chitrakonda block bordering Andhra Pradesh due to Maoist threats.
The SEC has kept the poll process in abeyance in 18 panchayats, two zila parishad zones of the block coming under Malkangiri district.
"After receipt of a joint report from Malkangiri Collector and SP citing law and order problem and inability to ensure adequate security to both the voters and candidates, the SEC has decided to hold up the panchayat poll process for the time being," said Rabindra Nath Sahu, SEC secretary.
Meanwhile, the commission announced a fresh nomination process where candidates have not filed their papers or all the nomination papers were rejected during the scrutiny.
As per the fresh schedule, nominations will be accepted once again on January 27, 28 and 30, while scrutiny of these will be done on January 31 and the list of valid nominations will be published on February 2.
Withdrawal of nominations will be conducted on February 4.
--IANS
cd/ahm/bg
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
