Elections were held for 8,686 gram panchayats and 48,573 wards using 37,000 ballot boxes across more than 23,000 booths. A total of 27,200 candidates were in the fray for the posts of sarpanch, and 1,19,998 to become panchayat members.
State Election Commission, Gujarat was constituted in September 1993 under Article 243K of the Constitution of India. State Election Commission has been entrusted with the function of conducting free, fair and impartial elections to the local bodies in the state.
Part-IX and Part-IXA were incorporated through the amendment no.73 and no.74 in the constitution of India covering provisions regarding the Panchayats and Municipalities respectively. These parts cover constitutions of Panchayats and Municipality including their elections by the State Election Commission..
State election commission carries out activities related to preparation of wards / election division as per local bodies rules, decision of boundaries and distribution of seats along with preparation of voters list for the local bodies organizations like Gram Panchayat, Taluka and District Panchayat / Municipality and Municipal Corporation of the state and conducting general / mid-term / bye-elections and supervising them. For all these functions, the authority is vested in the State Election Commission under Article 243 K under which it has been empowered with Superintendence, Direction and Control of elections of local bodies.
Important Link
As per the election rules of such local self government organizations, District Election Officer for Panchayat elections, District Municipal Election Officer for elections of municipality and City Election Officer for the elections of municipal corporation have been appointed. State election commission has empowered the collectors for all activities related to elections of Gram Panchayat where as the delimitation and allocation of seats for various reserved categories, voter's list, election programs and other related activities are carrying out by State Election Commission.
