The Andhra Pradesh High Court has issued interim orders restricting the state government to conduct Man Mandal Parishad (MPTC) and Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTC) elections on Thursday.
The high court passed the orders on Tuesday while hearing petitions filed by various political parties including Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and Jana Sena Party (JSP). The parties had said that according to a Supreme Court verdict, there should be four weeks' model code of conduct before the polling.
The State Election Commission had earlier issued a notification for the resumption of stalled poll procedure to the MPTC and ZPTC polls in the state and said that the election will be conducted on Thursday from 7 am to 5 am wherever necessary.
According to the notification, a repoll if any would have been conducted on Friday, with the counting of votes to be held a day after from 8 am onwards.
Nilam Sawhney last week took charge as the new State Election Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh and took the decision on the very first day of her new position. She also held deliberations with various authorities throughout the day and issued a notification last night.
Former, SEC Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar had stopped these elections almost one year ago, citing the start of COVID-19.
( With inputs from ANI )
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