Plea to announce civic poll results after general elections

• SEC holds all-party meeting, to submit report to SC today
• MPTC, ZPTC polls may be held in two phases

Hyderabad: Various political parties appealed to the State Election Commission (SEC) to undertake counting of local bodies’ polls only after completion of formalities for general elections.

Although there were differences of opinion among the parties regarding postponement of the elections, they, however, spoke in a common voice requesting the commission to hold back announcement of results. The SEC held an all-party meeting at its office in Buddha Bhavan on Thursday. K Narayana (CPI), Mysura Reddy (YSR Congress), N Indrasena Reddy (BJP), Kamalakar Rao (Congress), Y Venkateshwara Rao (CPI-M), Rama Rao (Lok Satta) took part in the meeting and expressed their views.

Most of the parties held the previous government responsible for the present state of chaos regarding the local body elections. General elections, examinations, non-availability of adequate staff and security issues are a major hindrance for conducting polls.

The leaders of various parties requested the commission to reschedule election dates and announce it in the meeting itself. Meanwhile, the SEC secretary Navin Mittal would submit the commission’s report to the Supreme Court on Friday.

According to the sources, the commission is wary of holding back results because of logistical problems associated with providing security for over 13 lakh ballot boxes for over one-and-a-half month.

It is learnt the commission is mulling over holding MPTC and ZPTC elections in two phases as against its earlier decision to conduct elections on April 6 and announce the results two days later.