The voters of 28 Blocks of 12 districts of Uttarakhand cast their votes on Wednesday to elect their representatives for the three-tier panchayati raj institutions.
The first stage of three tier Panchayat elections in all the districts of Uttarakhand barring Haridwar was held on Wednesday. Barring minor cases the polling was by and large peaceful.The State Election Commission Subardhan said that by 3 pm 54.72 per cent voters in the State had exercised their franchise. Uttarkashi with 65 percent voter turn out by 3 pm topped the list of districts while Tehri with 44.95 percent turnout by 3 pm reported lowest voting.
Subardhan said voters of 28 Blocks cast their votes at 3,216 polling booths in the state. The SEC informed that 29,058 member village Panchayat, 1,006 Pradhans, 171 Member Block Panchayat, 03 Member District Panchayats have been elected unopposed.He said that all the preparations for displaying the results of the polls on internet on June 27 have been made. The SEC said that nodal officers in all blocks in the state have been appointed and their task would be to post the election results on Internet on June 27.
He said that for second stage of polls on June 21 an electorate of 15,80,927 voters belonging to 2,638 village Panchayats of 31 blocks would cast their votes for electing 135 member district Panchayat, 1,088 Member Block Panchayats, 2,638 Pradhans and 1,7046 Member Village Panchayats. The polling percent is expected to cross 65 per cent as large numbers of voters were found standing in the queues outside the polling booths in the closing hours of voting. Voters showed enthusiasm and zeal while exercising their right to vote.
At Badhwala village of Vikasnagar block in Dehradun an 82 year old Paralytic person Manbahadur was taken to the polling booth by his two sons. His son said that his father can not walk and talk but makes it a point to vote in all elections.