Ahead of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Elections, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ordered the Election Commission of Punjab to ensure efficient security protection at each polling booth. In an order issued by the High Court, it urged maintaining peace and preventing fraudulent activities during voting.

This order comes ahead of the High Courts previous instructions to the Punjab election commission to conduct videography of the entire election process. This was to ensure transparency and fairness in the voting system.

The High Court has taken these decisions in response to the petitions filed seeking proper arrangements of the security personnel at the Polling booths. This move will allow the voters to cast their votes freely without fear, influence and intimidation. The petitioners have asked for the arrangements while highlighting the violence and voter harassment that occurred during the recent Panchayat elections. They have urged the authorities that such a situation should not happen again.

The petitioners have said that the voters must able to cast their vote in a secure environment, free from fears and coercion. They have requested the court to ensure the deployment of police forces at each polling booths to safeguard voters and maintain law and order on the election day.

About the Punjab Municipal Elections

Notably, the Punjab Municipal Corporation elections are set to take place on December 21, 2024. These elections will cover the five major municipal corporations including Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala and Phagwara along with 41 municipal councils and Nagar panchayats. The voting will be conducted from 7 am to 4 pm via EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines).

The nominations for the Punjab Municipal Elections 2024, began on December 9, 2024, and the last date for the filing nominations were December 12, 2024. The scrutiny of nomination papers took place on December 13, 2024, and the last date for the withdrawal of nominations was Saturday, December 14, 2024.

While sharing the details of the Municipal elections of Punjab, the state Election commissioner, Raj Kamal Chaudhari on Monday, December 9, 2024, have said that a total of21,500 personnel from the police department and Home Guard Jawans would be deployed in the districts. These security personnel will be deployed across 1,609 polling locations, having 3,809 polling booths.