Sikkim Democratic Front heading towards clean sweep

Gangtok, Oct 6 (UNI) The ruling Sikkim Democratic Front(SDF) has received an imposing 67 per cent walkover in the 888 Gram Panchayat wards for the upcoming October 26 polls.

A total of 595 Gram Panchayat seats from all the four districts were declared uncontested yesterday by the State Election Commission (SEC) as there were only SDF candidates in the fray, a SEC official said here today.

Yesterday was the last day for withdrawal of nominations. There will be elections for the remaining 293 wards on October 26.

Similarly, 49 per cent of the 93 Zilla Panchayat seats in the state had been declared uncontested in favour of SDF party candidates due to absence of opposing candidates.

With this, the SDF has garnered 45 Zilla Panchayat seats out of the total 93 seats. The remaining 47 Zilla Panchayat will go for polls on October 26.

Elections for one Zilla panchayat seat in East Sikkim will be rescheduled as all the area candidates had withdrawn their nominations yesterday, SEC sources said.

The absence of a strong fight from the Opposition has been felt in the state. The state Congress unit and CPI(M) were the only Opposition parties that had nominated few candidates for the rural body polls while independent candidates emerged as the biggest threat for the ruling party.

Alogether, the state has 2.27 lakh voters.

UNI