The fifth and final phase of the panchayat elections in the State was held on Thursday in 25 districts in 975 gram panchayats in 48 blocks. The polling for 131 Zilla Parishad seats was conducted in this phase.

At least 70% of total 41.88 lakh voters turned up to exercise their franchise in 13,514 booths.

A statement from the State Election Commission (SEC) said the polling was by and large peaceful barring a few isolated incidents of violence where polling was affected. The commission has sought reports from the concerned district Collectors and would take a final call in the matter after examining the reports.

The SEC said the elections in all phases were held for a total of 1,06,353 posts and 2.79 crore voters were to exercise their franchise. As many as 2.20 lakh candidates contested in the elections for various posts.

The SEC said 36,523 Ward Member, 126 Sarpanch, 326 Panchayat Samiti Member and one Zilla Parishad candidates have been elected unopposed.

“The major highlight was the smooth conduct of elections in Malkangiri’s Swabhiman Anchal (cutoff areas) and other Maoist-affected areas,” said the SEC.

The SEC, however, expressed deep regret over the death of Home Guards in Nabarangpur district while on duty and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 15 lakh to each deceased’s family and also compensation for injured personnel.

The three major political parties BJD, BJP and Congress blamed each other for unprecedented violence during the polls. While the BJP and the Congress accused the SEC, Government officials and police of bias towards the ruling BJD, the BJD blamed the BJP for orchestrating the violence in many places.

Foolproof arrangements have been made for counting of votes in all 314 block offices of the State from February 26 to 28. Results will be announced on the same days.