New Delhi, Oct 14 (IANS): Himachal Pradesh will have a single-phase polling for its 68 Assembly seats on November 12 and the counting of votes will take place on December 8, the Election Commission announced on Friday.

With the announcement of the poll schedule, the Model Code of Conduct for guidance of political parties and candidates has come into force.

Last date of filing nominations for the Assembly polls will be October 25 and the last data for withdrawal of candidates is October 29.

There are a total 55,07,261 voters in Himachal Pradesh including 27,80,208 male voters and 27,27,016 female voters.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that now youngsters get four chances in a year to enrol as a voter. There will be four qualifying dates in a year for eligibility to register as a voter instead of a single qualifying date.

He also said social media teams will be set up to keep strict vigil on fake news being spread during elections.

Earlier, teams of the commission recently visited Himachal Pradesh to take stock of poll preparedness.