The current tenure of the state legislature ends on January 22, 2018.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) A K Jyoti, on his visit to Gujarat to review the preparedness ahead of the Assembly election due later this year, has said that polls will be held in December 2017. While talking to the media persons on Tuesday Jyoti said the Election Commission is yet to decide whether the polls will be held in two phases or not.
CEC made this announcement after completing a formal review of the poll preparedness in the state during a two-day visit. CEC Jyoti expressed satisfaction over the preparations of the election machinery in Gujarat.
The current tenure of the state legislature ends on January 22, 2018.
Earlier on Monday, the registered political parties, including the BJP and the Congress, presented their demands before the Election Commission (EC). The BJP demanded that the polls be held after December 14, as the period between December 5 and December 14 is considered auspicious for marriages.
The ruling party also sought a relaxation in the rules pertaining to polling agents and said the EC should provide a single-window system to the candidates so that they did not have to approach multiple officials.
It also said that arrangements should be made so that the items seized by the EC before the polls were returned on time.
The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) voiced a demand for a random count of the voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips and that it be digitally established that the VVPAT machines were working properly.
The Congress also demanded that tainted officers be debarred from being deployed on election duty and that those on poll duty were made to cast their votes during their election training sessions.
It also sought that the officers concerned be prosecuted if names of voters were found missing from the voters' list.
The CEC also flagged off a mobile EVM-VVPAT Demonstration Centre, which would go to all the Assembly segments of Gandhinagar to raise awareness about the VVPAT machines.
(With inputs from PTI)
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