With having just two weeks for the official notification from the state election commission on hosting the local body elections, the state of Tamil Nadu has today revoked the existing electoral regulations of electing the mayors, chairmen for the municipalities and panchayats directly. 

The state cabinet meeting which was headed by the Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami had unanimously agreed upon having indirect elections to elect the top posts of the local bodies in what it appears that the state government led by ADMK had scrapped the regulation of direct elections which was ratified by the party in 2018. 

By bringing the direct elections to an end, the state government had seemingly resumed the plan of indirect elections where the people elected ward councilors of local bodies would be electing the Mayors of the corporations, the chairmen of the urban, rural municipalities and panchayats. The sources had stated that the state government will enact the ordinance very soon.

In the last held local body elections in 2011, the people who were eligible to vote had elected the mayors and chairmen directly like the ward councilors. The current local bodies, which should have hosted the elections in 2016, remain vacant for the past three years as the ruling ADMK party and the opposition DMK party have been battling legally on the petitions that were filed in Madras High court.

Earlier in the week, the state election commission had issued a notification to conduct the local body polls in December and added that the notification also carries the directives of polling hours in panchayats, town panchayats, municipalities, and corporations where the eligible voters can cast their votes from 7 am to 5 pm. The official cited that the polls would be undergoing two phases.

Also read : https://thenewstuff.in/local-body-elections-near-and-so-heat-mayoral-race