The state election commission on Thursday announced that panchayat polls would be held in a single phase on July 8 and said the results could be declared either on July 10 or 11.

“The single-phase panchayat polls will be held on July 8. The state election commission will issue the notification tomorrow (Friday), following which district administrations will issue matching notifications, inviting nominations, by tomorrow. Nominations can be submitted from tomorrow,” state election commissioner Rajiva Sinha said on Thursday, a day after he had taken over the charge.

There had been intense speculations for the past few weeks over the schedule of the panchayat elections as the five-year tenure of rural bodies would start expiring from August 16. The discussion on the rural poll roster got a fresh momentum after Raj Bhavan and Nabanna differed on Sinha’s appointment — after the retirement of Saurav Das — as the state poll panel chief. The matter was later resolved amicably.

A a section of Opposition leaders said the schedule was announced in a “hurried manner” and “without proper consultation and preparation”.

“Nominations can be filed between June 9 and June 15, except Sunday. The scrutiny of nominations will be done on June 17 and the last date for withdrawal of nomination will be June 20,” said Sinha.

Although the commissioner did not specify the date for counting of votes, he hinted that the votes could be counted on June 10 or June 11. The model code of conduct came into effect immediately after the declaration of the poll date.

The poll panel chief said that ballot papers would be used to elect 63,229 panchayat members, 9,730 panchayat samiti members and 928 zilla parishad members across the state. Ballot boxes for a total of 61,636 polling stations across the state have already been kept ready, he added.

Sinha was, however, silent on some sensitive issues related to the rural polls — like security arrangements or whether nominations could be filed online. He also did not have a clear answer on why the polls would be held in a single phase and whether the commission would seek deployment of central forces to conduct the polls peacefully.

“We held discussions with the state several times between yesterday and today. It is considered that the state government assessed the situation and recommended that polls can be held in one phase,” said Sinha.

“There will be several rounds of consultations and if any requirement is felt, we will inform the state about the requirements,” the poll panel chief said, adding that faith should be kept on the state police.

Although Sinha said that the schedule was declared following several rounds of discussions between the poll panel and the state government, questions were raised whether the poll date was declared in a hurry and all aspects related to security and preparedness were duly considered.

A senior state government official said that the date was announced even without consulting with the district authorities, who will conduct the entire poll process.

“It needs some preparation for distributing and accepting the nomination papers. It is tough to set up the arrangements that include security arrangements by tomorrow morning,” a DM told The Telegraph.