Bhubaneswar, Dec. 27: Polls for the three-tier panchayati raj in Odisha will be held in five phases from February 13.

Polling will be held on February 13, February 15, 17, 19 and 21. An announcement to this effect was made by the State Election Commission today.

However, the SEC did not agree with the Opposition, which has demanded separate dates for voting and counting to be held. "It requires change in the rules. This is not possible at this moment," said state election commissioner (SEC) R.N. Senapati.

Counting will commence just one hour after the election process is over. Voting will be between 7am and 12 noon and counting will start at 1pm.

Since 2003, three former state election commissioners had recommended to the state government to hold voting and counting on separate dates so that voters get more time to exercise their franchise. The state government, however, has so far stuck to the present rule.

In 2003, the then election commissioner Abhay Rath had argued that many voters were unable to cast their votes within the stipulated time frame despite standing in queues for hours together. Officials had to turn away voters, which occasionally led to violence.

Rath had also pointed out that as counting was done on the same day officials found it hard to manage both the voting and counting exercises simultaneously.

"Counting and related formalities such as sealing of ballot boxes, continued till late night. Under pressure, officials committed blunders at certain places," he had said.

He had said that in some states, eight hours were given to voters to cast their ballots and counting was done the next day.

Subsequent SECs Sanjeeb Hota and Ajit Tripathy had echoed similar views on the issue. In his recommendations in 2012, the then state election commissioner Tripathy had cited how the Election Commission had to face a lot of trouble because of violence as a result of less time to vote in 2007.

The Opposition parties, too, want more time for voters to take part in the exercise. "At present, voters get only five hours. We should not deny any one his or her fundamental right," said BJP spokesperson Sajjan Sharma.

A delegation of BJP led by its state president Basant Panda today called on governor S.C. Jamir and raised this demand.

"We have also requested the governor to instruct the government and the SEC to have separate ballot boxes for zilla parishad and panchayat elections," said Panda.

Panda argued that since zila parishad polls are held on party symbols unlike panchayat polls, separation of ballot boxes was desirable to rule out confusion in the minds of the voters.

With the announcement of the panchayat election dates, the model code of conduct has come into play and will continue to be in force till February 21.

The panchayat polls will give Dhinkia gram panchayat the miss this year. Dhinkia is the village from where protests broke out against steel giant Posco.