A total of 75.68 per cent voters exercised their franchise during second phase of Panchayat general elections 2014-15 on Thursday including 75.43 per cent males, 76.04 per cent females and 5.71 per cent other voters.
Third phase of polling will be held on February 22.
In the second phase, notification for elections was issued for 248 seats of district Panchayat member, 2015 of Janpad Panchayat member, 6717 of sarpanch and one lakh 7 thousand 848 seats of panch. Some of these have already been elected unopposed including one district Panchayat member, 28 Janpad Panchayat members, 161 sarpanchs and 67 thousand 439 panchs. Elections were held for 247 posts of district Panchayat member, 1986 of Janpad Panchayat member, 6525 sarpanch and 32 thousand 684 seats of panch on February 5.
Counting of votes for sarpanch will be held soon after end of polling. Results of elections for sarpanch and panch will be announced at development block headquarters on February 9. Counting of votes cast in EVMs for district and Janpad Panchayat members will be held at development block headquarters onFebruary 8. Tabulation of votes and results for Janpad Panchayat members will be announced on February 27 and district Panchayat members on February 28. During polling today, 121 EVMs were replaced due to technical fault.
State Election Commissioner R Parasuram has informed that re-polling has been ordered at 17 polling booths due to different errors including 12 booths for wrong printing of ballot papers and 5 polling booths due to law and order situation. Re-polling will be held on February 7 from 7 am to 3 pm.
Due to erroneous ballot papers, re-polling has been ordered in polling booths 25, 26 and 27 at Nagaud development block in Satna district, 26, 27 at Udaipura development block in Raisen district, 294, 295, 296 and 297 at Manpur Gram Panchayat in Umaria district and 122, 123 and 124 at Sinhawal development block in Sidhi district. Similarly, repolling was ordered due to law & order situation at polling booths 92 and 267 at Ater development block in Bhind district and 28, 119 and 147 at Bhind development block.
Polling was cancelled at booth number 141 of Tala Gram Panchayat under Amarpatan Janpad Panchayat in Satna district due to missing of ballot papers. Re-polling there will be held on February 7. Polling cancelled due to change of election symbols of candidates for sarpanch’s seat at polling booths 26 and 27 in Pipaliya Puariya Gram Panchayat under Udaipura Janpad Panchayat in Raisen district. There also re-polling will be held on February 7.
Presiding officer Vallabh Sharma of polling booth number 144 at Narwar development block in Shivpuri district and reserve presiding officer Krishna Bageshwar of Tirla development block in Dhar district died of heart attack. Next of the kin of both the officers have been provided economic assistance worth Rs5 lakh each.