Last minute SEC order prevents mass rejection of nominations

According to sources,just before scrutiny — held on June 24 and 25 — of nomination papers was to begin,there was confusion regarding the proposer for candidates. Some returning officer (ROs) reportedly wanted to know whether the proposer of a candidate must be from the same ward from where the candidate had filed his paper or he can be from any ward of the same village? The reason: A large number of people have proposed candidates belonging to wards other than their own.

“There were no clear instructions regarding this and no time to issue a written order as well. So to avoid this confusion,verbal instructions were issued over phone by the office of the SEC secretary that a proposer can be from any ward but he must be from the same village,” said a district electoral officer.

The instructions further stated that a proposer cannot propose the names of more than one candidate. The orders were sent to all district electoral officers,who in turn informed ROs.

Despite repeated attempts Sharma could not be contacted for comments.

A total of 58,470 candidates have filed nomination for 13,080 posts of sarpanch in Punjab. Nearly,two per cent papers were rejected during the first two days of scrutiny. Moreover,for the posts of 81,412 panchs,over two lakh nomination were received. Among this,nearly 10 per cent were rejected.