The upcoming Uttarakhand Panchayat elections will witness several key changes aimed at improving transparency, efficiency, and accessibility. For the first time, the State Election Commission has decided to release election results online. Alongside this, the voter lists are now also available digitally, marking a significant move towards digitization in the state’s local body elections.
The voter list can now be accessed at https://secresult.uk.gov.in/votersearch/searchvotermapping, allowing voters to search by name and download their Gram Panchayat list. This initiative is expected to simplify the process for voters and candidates to verify their enrollment.
To ensure fair play, the commission has increased expense limits for candidates but has also tightened monitoring. Designated officers in each district will now oversee election expenditure and can demand account details from candidates at any time.
In terms of workforce, 95,909 officials and staff will be deployed for polling duties. These include 11,849 presiding officers, 47,910 polling officers, 450 sector/zonal magistrates and nodal officers, and 35,700 security personnel. For the first time, deployment will be done through a software-driven randomization system, ensuring transparency and impartiality.
Focusing on staff safety, the Commission has introduced a compensation policy — ₹10 lakh will be given to the family of any polling staff who dies while on election duty. This proposal has already received government approval and official directives will be sent to District Magistrates.
Election results will be made available live on the Commission’s website https://sec.uk.gov.in as they are declared. This system, earlier used in municipal polls, will now benefit Panchayat-level elections as well.
