The polling for elections to the 40 wards of the Brahmapur Municipal Corporation (BMC) ended by and large peacefully on Thursday. There were unprecedented security arrangements by the city police including black commandos for the first time patrolling in the city.
A large number of voters were initially confused to identify their booths as in one premise three to four booths were operating. All the booths operating in a single building or premise should have displayed the booth numbers in bold letters just in the front of the main gate of the concerned building. Instead, the election officials had displayed the booth numbers at the entrance point of each booth, said a senior citizen.
More than 60 per cent polling was recorded. The polling percentage could have increased had there not been rain which started an hour before the closure of the polling time.
Among the political heavyweights who cast their votes included former Union Minister Chandrasekhar Sahu (Congress), former Assembly Deputy Speaker Rama Chandra Panda (BJP) and Revenue Minister Surjya Narayan Patro.
Though there was adequate police deployment near the booths, within a radius of one hundred metres large numbers of party workers were found canvassing in favour of their candidates.
The Ganjam district police also made elaborate security arrangements during the polling for the Ganjam, Rambha and Chhatrapur NACs.
For the first time, CCTV cameras were installed in some highly sensitive booths in the BMC.
Counting of votes will begin on Friday at 8 am in the ITI-Engineering School ground, where unprecedented security arrangements have been made for security of the ballot boxes.