All you need to know about DDC Elections in UT J&K
06-November-2020

The first major political activity since the abrogation of Article 370 is setting up of District Development Council. Firstly, we should understand what is DDC. DDC(District Development Council) are the members which will be directly elected by the public of UT.

On 5 November, Jammu and Kashmir State Election Commission KK Sharma has issued the first notification for elections to be held in UT. This is the first step towards forming the new layer of governance. The term of the DDC will be 5 years. The electoral process for DDC will allow for reservations of SC, ST, and Women. J&K is also setting up BDC Polls to fill 13,000 vacant panchayat seats.

Elections will be held in eight phases started from 28 November to 22 December. The voting will be held on 2 November between 9 am to 1 pm. Also, the counting of the votes will be held on the same day for bypolls and DDC elections.

This is the first time that West Pakistani Refugees, will be exercising their franchise in these elections.

There are 14 DDC Constituencies in each district. DDC polls will be held on the party basis whereas Panchayat bypolls will be non-party basis.

While the DDC and panchayat polls will be held through ballots and byelection to muncipal seats will be conducted through EVM(Electronic Voting Machine).

Center Government has fully applied 73rd Constitutional Amendment to the UT J&k which has been pending for the last 28 years.

By applying, 73rd Constitutional Amendment, now three tiers of Panchayat Raj Institutions will be formed in UT J&k for the first time ever.