After 20-year gap, AP Medical Council to hold elections for 13 members

Vijayawada: After nearly two decades, the Andhra Pradesh Medical Council (APMC) election process is finally set to take place, with online voting scheduled for February 9.

For the first time in its history, the elections will be held entirely through an e-voting system, allowing eligible doctors to cast their votes from anywhere, including through mobile phones.

Amid the election announcement, candidates of the Doctors Democratic Panel, led by former IMA President Dr Nanda Kishore, along with Dr Karthik, filed their nominations at the APMC office in Tadepalli on Friday. The panel has nominated 13 candidates for the council elections.

Also read- AP Medical Council warns of strict action against unqualified practitioners

Speaking to TNIE, Dr Nanda Kishore said, "With the experience of the reforms, we are entering this election with a clear objective of addressing long-pending issues faced by doctors and boosting the Medical Council."

Karthik said, "About 1.35 lakh doctors are registered with the Medical Council in AP, of whom over 55,000 are eligible to exercise their franchise. He said online voting will take place from 9 am on February 9. If our panel is elected, we are committed to constructing a building for the APMC and implementing further reforms to ensure efficiency in Council functioning."

Announcing the election schedule earlier, Returning Officer KVN Chakradhar Babu, who is also the Director of Secondary Health, told TOI, elections to 13 posts in the Council will be held as per Section 3(2)(b) of the APMC Act. He noted that the last APMC elections were conducted in 2006.

He further stated that the election process is being carried out following directions from the Andhra Pradesh High Court, which instructed that the elections be completed within six weeks.

Over the past month, 316 doctors registered afresh and 1,871 renewed their registrations, taking the total number of electors to 55,504. Doctors with local status, those residing in the state for more than five years, are also eligible to contest, with nominations accepted from Jan 20 to 27.

Withdrawal of nominations will be permitted on Jan 28 and 29, and the final list of contesting candidates will be published on Feb 2. The election will be held between 8 am and 5 pm on Feb 9, with results to be declared on Feb 10.

Eligible voters can cast their votes by logging in to apmc.ap.gov.in. Doctors are required to complete the voting process within 30 minutes of logging in. Election guidelines will be sent via SMS, and voters will receive an online confirmation once their vote is successfully submitted.

Also read- Andhra Pradesh Medical Council launches district-level registration services