Gujarat Assembly election to be held in two phases on December 1 and 5, votes to be counted on December 8

New Delhi, November 3, 2022

The general election to the 182-member Gujarat Legislative Assembly will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced here today.

The notification for the two phases of the election will be issued on November 5 and November 10, respectively.

The last dates for filing nominations are November 14 and November 17 and the nominations will be scrutinised on November 15 and November 18, respectively.

The last date for withdrawal of candidatures for the two phases willbe November 17 and November 21, respectively.

Counting of votes in both phases of polling will be taken up on December 8, along with the votes cast in the single-phase election to the Himachal Pradesh Assembly on November 12.

The five-year term of the current assembly, which was constituted on February 19, 2018, will end on February 18, 2023.

Of the 182 seats in the Gujarat Assembly, 13 are reserved for Scheduled Castes and 27 for Scheduled Tribes.

As many as 89 of the 182 constituencies will go to the polls on December 1 and the remaining 93 on December 5.

Rajiv Kumar said the Commission had conducted the Special Summary Revision of Electoral Roll in Gujarat with reference to 01.10.2022 as the qualifying date. Earlier, such revision of roll was conducted with reference to the 1st January of the year, but after the amendment in Section 14 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 by the Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021, the provision of four qualifying dates in a year is available now.

"Due to this change, all such young electors who attained the age of 18 years between 1st January, 2022 and 1st October, 2022 got the chance of enrolment and to use their voting right in this election," he said.

As per the electoral roll, the number of electors in Gujarat is 4,91,17,308, including 27,943 service voters.

The number of young electors who attained the age of 18 years between January 1 and October 1 this year is 3,24,420, he said.

The state also has 4,04,802 voters with disabilities, 1,417 third gender voters and 9,87,999 senior citizen voters (aged above 80 years).

There will be a total of 51,782 polling stations in the state, 3.29% more than the 50,128 stations in the last elections in 2017.

The Model Code of Conduct (MCC) with regard to all candidates, political parties and the state government, has come into immediate effect with the announcement of the poll schedule.

The Model Code of Conduct shall also be applicable to the Union Government in so far as announcements/policy decisions pertaining to/for Gujarat are concerned.

NNN