The State Election Commission has canceled elections to all wards of Kadambur Grade I Nagar Panchayat “after complaints of irregularities” during filing of nominations.
During scrutiny of nominations on Saturday, it was found that there were fake voters supporting the names of DMK candidates for Wards 1, 2 and 11. Returning officer Suresh Kumar, who rejected the nomination of DMK candidate for Ward 1 Jayaraj on this basis, accepted the nominations of party candidates Shanmugalakshmi (ward 2) and Chinnadurai (ward 11).
Angered by this, supporters of independent candidates Rajeshwari Nagaraja (Ward 2) and Shivkumar (Ward 11) staged a sit-in in front of the Nagar Panchayat office, while Suresh Kumar left the spot at 3 pm.
As the agitation intensified, the Assistant Returning Officer, after a lengthy discussion with higher officials over phone, announced that the nominations of Shanmugalakshmi and Chinnadurai had also been rejected. He pasted on the notice board the final list of candidates – SVSP Nagaraj for Ward 1, Rajeshwari, an independent candidate for Ward 2, Shivakumar for Ward 11 and other candidates after scrutiny of nominations.
Since there was no other candidate in the fray after scrutiny in these three wards, Mr. Nagaraj, Ms. Rajeshwari and Mr. Shivakumar were to be elected unopposed.
Against this background, the State Election Commission canceled the elections to all the wards. In a statement, the SEC said the election was annulled because the Returning Officer and Assistant Returning Officer did not follow “guidelines and election code of conduct” during nomination filing and scrutiny.
The Collector, who is also the District Election Officer, should initiate disciplinary proceedings against the Returning Officer and the Assistant Returning Officer. The new date of polling for Kadambur Nagar Panchayat will be announced later, the statement said.
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