HYDERABAD: Elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) would be held on December 1, the Telangana State Election Commission announced on Tuesday.

Only Ballot Paper: State Election Commissioner C Parthasarathi said it has been decided to conduct the polls with ballot papers after obtaining the views of major political parties and the health department in view of COVID-19 pandemic and considering various relevant issues.

Timings: Polling for the 150-member GHMC would be held from 7 AM to 6 PM on December 1.

The polling time has been extended by an hour in view of the pandemic situation.

Nominations: Nominations would be accepted from Wednesday with the last day being November 20.

Scrutiny would be on November 21 and nominations can be withdrawn till November 22, the state election commissioner said.

Re-Poll: Re-polling, if necessary, would be held on December 3 and the counting of votes would be taken up on the next day.

The term of the present council expires on February 10, 2021.

The post of Mayor is reserved for woman (General) this time.

The state government has decided to continue the same reservation system, which was followed in the previous elections in 2016

The ruling TRS had won the last GHMC elections, bagging 99 of the total 150 wards.

At least 20 assembly constituencies fall under the GHMC limits.

Voters List: The final electoral rolls have been published and over 74 lakh voters will be exercising their franchise on the polling day.

Over 48,000 polling personnel will be deployed, besides flying squads, micro observers, static surveillance teams and others will also be monitoring the proceedings.

Over 2700 polling stations have been identified as sensitive, hyper-sensitive and critical stations.

Regarding distribution of the interim financial aid of Rs.10,000 to rain-affected families by GHMC, the Commissioner said that calamity relief is exempted from the model code of conduct. However, the distribution should be done online and the amount has to be transferred to the beneficiary accounts.