On Monday, a huge rush is expected at the offices of returning officers as many candidates from the three major parties in the national capital, the AAP, BJP and Congress — will file their nominations on the last day.
According to the officials, just 35 nominations have been filed since the process opened on November 7. The offices of the returning officers were closed for the weekend. The scrutiny of documents will take place on November 16, and the last date to withdraw the nominations is November 18.
The state election commission sources said they expect at least 3,000 nominations to be filed at 68 offices of the returning officers on a single day. In 2017, as many as 4,240 nominations were filed by the candidates of various national and state parties and regional players apart from independents for 272 wards of east, north and south corporations. A total of 2,516 candidates finally remained in the fray.
The commission, in its official statement, has said that as per Rule 14 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Election of Councilors) Rules, 2012, a ‘public holiday’ includes a day which is a public holiday for the purpose of section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act. “Accordingly, the second Saturday falling on November 12, 2022, will be a public holiday to receive nominations. No nomination papers from candidates would be received on November 12 and November 13, being public holidays. The rush of nominations is expected on Monday, which is the last day of filing nominations,” the commission has stated.
The SEC has only received seven nominations till November 10, 2022. On Thursday, the commission held a coordination meeting of all general observers and expenditure observers at the NDMC Convention Centre.
They said that steps should be taken to maintain law and order around the offices of returning officers to prevent any chaos and commotion. Authorities have been instructed to ensure measures are taken for crowd and traffic management, maintaining law and order around the premises, and putting up waiting facilities for candidates at the offices of Returning Officers, so as to prevent any chaos and commotion.
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