Panaji: The Goa Forward Party (GFP) on Wednesday questioned the announcement of the Zilla Parishad election date by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, saying that it was the prerogative of the State Election Commission (SEC).
Sawant had last week announced that the polling date for the ZP elections has been postponed from March 15 to 22 owing to celebrations like Holi. Earlier in January, State Election Commissioner R K Srivastava had announced that election for all 50 ZP constituencies would be held on March 15.
Addressing a press conference here, GFP general secretary Mohandas Lolienkar said, "The State Election Commission is the authority to announce the dates, and not the state government."
He said that while the State Election Commissioner is yet to announce the date for the ZP polls, the chief minister has already said that the elections would be held on March 22. GFP vice president Durgadas Kamat said the commission is also yet to announce the reservation of the constituencies for the ZP polls.
"As the government servants have already been informed that the election would be held on March 22, the code of conduct has technically come into force. But the state ministers are busy inaugurating several projects in violation of the code," Kamat alleged.
Despite several attempts, state election commissioner could not be contacted for his comment.
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