Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Panchayat elections are likely to be postponed, with the State Election Commission (SEC) planning to release the election notification only after the 2027 Census is completed.
According to the SEC, the aim is to wrap up the Panchayat elections by June 2027. The notification for the polls is expected to be issued in April 2027, once the census exercise concludes.
As part of preparations, the Commission has already held discussions with Revenue Divisional Commissioners (RDCs) and District Collectors. A review meeting with district officials will be held via video conferencing on July 21 to take stock of the progress made so far.
In a first, the State Election Commission will also undertake a door-to-door survey ahead of the elections to make the electoral process more efficient. Along with this, a booth-wise survey will be conducted to detect errors in the voter lists.
Speaking about the preparations, State Election Commission Secretary Santosh Kumar Dash said the survey will help improve the accuracy of electoral rolls, make voting easier for people, and boost voter participation.
“Due to the ongoing SIR work, the Panchayat elections will be slightly delayed this time. The SIR work will continue till the first week of March. It is not possible to conduct elections until the work is completed. Earlier, Panchayat elections were mostly held in the month of February. But this time, both Panchayat and Municipal elections will be held in April-May 2027”, he stated.
He pointed out that voters from multiple localities are currently assigned to the same polling booth, which causes inconvenience and leads to low turnout. The survey is intended to rectify such issues and create an updated and error-free electoral database. After the survey, the Commission will release booth-wise voter lists.
This will ensure that voters listed under a booth belong to the same geographical area and vote at their designated polling station.
