राज्य चुनाव आयोग
राष्ट्रीय राजधानी क्षेत्र दिल्ली

ROLE OF SEC DELHI
The Delhi State Election Commission was constituted in October 1993 consequent upon the 73rd and 74th amendment to the Constitution of India. The Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957 was amended to harmonise it with aforesaid Constitutional amendments by enacting the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 1993 (Act No.67 of 1993) on 1st October 1993. The SEC has been assigned the superintendence, direction and control of the conduct of elections of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi in accordance with the provisions contained in the aforesaid Act.

DELIMITATION OF WARDS
For the purpose of conducting elections, delimitation of wards is required to be done, on completion of each Census or on change of number of municipal wards, which entails re-fixing of boundaries on the basis of average population, as far as practicable.

The Delimitation of wards was done on the basis of 1991 Census, and orders were issued under the signature of Administrator, Delhi on 30-12-1993. Order regarding reservation of seats was issued by the SEC on 24-03-1994. Out of a total of 134 wards 25 seats were reserved for SCs. Out of these 25 seats 7 seats were reserved for women belonging to SC category. Out of remaining 109 seats, 37 were reserved for women as per provisions of the Constitution and the DMC Act.

The act was amended in 2007 and number of wards increased from 134 to 272 under one corporation. Thereafter in December 2011, single corporation was bifurcated into three corporation viz. North Delhi having 104 wards, South Delhi having 104 ward and East Delhi having 64 wards (Total 272 wards).

Next Delimitation of Wards was done in 2017 based on 2011 Census, but there was no change in the number of wards in three corporations.

Before conduct of General Election to MCD in 2022 the number of wards were decreased from 272 to 250 wards by Central Government and three corporations were unified into single corporation. Due to reduction in nos. of wards the Delimitation exercise based on 2011 census (no Census took place after 2011) had to be undertaken and delimitation order dated 17/10/2022 was passed by Central Government to provide for 250 wards.

RESERVATION OF WARDS
The Reservation of Wards as prescribed in Section 3 and 5(2) of the DMC Act 1957, has been done before every General Election. The Reservation of wards for SCs is being done on the basis of ratio of total population of MCD divided by population of SCs. The Central Government has delegated its power to SEC to reserve seats for SCs, SC Women and Women at every occasion. Currently, the Commission passed the reservation order on 20/10/2022. Thereafter, Election to MCD was held on 4th December 2022.

CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS
The Commission conducted first General Elections to the MCD on 24-02-1997, and then on March-2002, April-2007, April-2012, April-2017. The Central Government had amended DMC Act on 15th April, 2022 curtailing the number of Wards from 272 to 250 for which Delimitation of Wards has to be done again. As such, General Election due in April-2022, could be held on 4th December 2022.

PRE ELECTION WORK
As per mandate of the Constitution and the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act 1957, General Election to the Corporation have to be conducted before expiry of five-year term of the existing House. The pre-election work involves following major activities:

1. Assessment of preparedness and interactions with police and District administration: Meetings are held with the top police / civil administration officers to ensure smooth elections from law and order point of view.
2. Preparation of Electoral Roll: Obtaining of latest Electoral Roll of Assembly constituencies for use in MCD elections, bifurcation of assembly Electoral Rolls into MCD Wards.
3. Arrangement of Manpower for Elections: The various departments of Government of India, Delhi Government, MCD, DDA and PSUs are requested to provide the manpower for elections.
4. Arrangement of EVMs and Power packs: EVMs are obtained through the ECI from various states and power packs are procured from EVM manufacturing companies. FLC of the EVMs is done with the help of manufacturing companies.
5. Arrangement of Polling Stations: Preparation of lists of Polling Stations and arrangement of facilities in the Polling Stations, Special arrangements for persons with disabilities (PwD) voters.
6. Setting up of Strong Rooms and Counting Centres: A number of Strong Rooms and Counting Centres are setup for keeping the polled EVMs and polled stationery. Further counting centres are set up for counting of votes across the city.
7. Arrangement of Polling Material including Indelible Ink, Polling Kits etc: Thousands of polling kits as per the number of polling stations are prepared in which several items like indelible ink, pencil, statutory envelopes, non-statutory envelops, forms, paper seals for EVMs etc. are packed.
8. Arrangement of Transportation for officers and Polling staff: The election officers like observers, expenditure observers, ROs, AROs, sectors officers are provided with light vehicles and arrangements are also made to provide DTC buses for polling staff to bring back polled material after poll is over.
9. Issuance and Enforcement of Model Code of Conduct Guidelines: Restriction on use of loud speakers, use of Vehicles, Sale of liquor, Defacement of property, Printing of pamphlets, posters etc., Complaint redressal cell, Single window permissions system, Media certification and Monitoring Committee etc.
10. Issuance of Reservation Order, Symbol Order etc.: Orders for Reservation of wards for specified category of persons like SC, SC-Women, Women and General, are issued on the eve of every General Election. Similarly symbol order indicating recognized national and state parties of ECI and reserved and free symbols as adopted for MCD elections are issued at every election
11. Arrangement of Security personnel: MHA and Delhi police are requested to provide adequate Police force/ Para-military force/ Central force / Home guards to provide all security arrangements for conduct of peaceful poll and counting of votes
12. Issuance of passes to Media Personnel to cover election events

POST ELECTION WORK
Besides conducting elections at regular intervals, the Commission remains occupied in the post election work e.g.

1. Attending to various writs and election petitions in the High Court and the District Courts, production of election records in the Courts.
2. Proper maintenance of all election records, inspection and supply of attested copies of admissible election documents to the public and the political parties.
3. Rendering the accounts of advances paid to the election functionaries like DEOs, ROs for conducting elections and settlement thereof.
4. Scrutiny by ROs concerned and submission of the reports of accounts of election expenses filed by all the contesting candidates to the Election Commission and to disqualify the candidates for six years who have not rendered the account in the prescribed form, manner and time as per law.
5. While in the custody of Returning Officer, the statutory and non-statutory records of all polling stations as received from the polling staff are preserved for a period of six months and thereafter destroyed except in cases where election petitions are filed. These are kept in safe custody till final disposal of election petitions.
6. Safe storage of EVMs after the end of poll. These are preserved for the period of six months or for such longer period till an election petition is finally disposed of.
7. Compilation of Election reports and Statistics.