Election Commission to announce poll dates for five states today

The Election Commission will announce the poll dates for five state Assemblies - Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur, Goa and Uttarakhand, on Wednesday.

A press conference will be held at noon today where Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi will announce a list of dates including the last date of filing nominations, when each state will vote, phases, if any, and the day of counting.

The Election Commission on Tuesday held a meeting with Chief Electoral Officers of the five poll-bound states to fine tune the arrangements.

At the meeting, the assessment of the law and order situation, deployment of polling personnel, safety and electronic voting machines and strict implementation of the model code of conduct also came up for discussion.

The law and order situation in Manipur due to the road blockade by some Naga groups was also discussed.

The terms of the legislative Assembly of Goa, Manipur and Punjab are due to expire on 18 March while that of Uttarakhand expires on 26 March.

The legislative term of Uttar Pradesh ends on 27 May.

In December 2016, the Election Commission had written to the state government and state education boards to frame their election schedule in consultation with the Election Commission.

Goa has 40 Assembly seats, Manipur 60, Punjab has 117, Uttarakhand has 70 while Uttar Pradesh has 403.

The model code of conduct comes into effect immediately after the press conference.

--ANI