SEC defers counting of Parishad poll votes

Hyderabad: The State Election Commission has postponed the counting of votes of the Parishad elections and will announce a new date soon. Earlier, the counting of votes of Parishad elections was to be held on May 27.

According to the order issued by the SEC, the decision has been taken in view of the representations being made by various political parties.

The order said that the polls for 5,817 MPTCs and 538 ZPTCs were completed in three phases and ballot boxes are stored in the Strong Rooms.

Various political parties represented for the postponement of counting scheduled on May 27 on the plea that a long gap of over 40 days between the date of counting and the date of indirect elections is likely to give rise to opportunities for horse trading and other malpractices.

When the matter was referred to the Panchayat Raj Department, it proposed an alternative schedule for counting on July 3.

However, such an arrangement would require an amendment to the Telangana Panchayat Raj Act, 2018. A proposal is sent to Government in this regard.

In view of this, the State Election Commission decided to postpone the counting date from May 27 to another date that would be notified shortly.