The first phase of panchayat elections for two blocks -laksar and Khanpur - of Haridwar district went off peacefully on Monday except a few minor cases of disputes cropping up at some of the places. The second and the third phase of the elections will be held on December 27 and January 2, respectively.
Braving the cold, the villagers came out in large number in the morning hours to cast their votes. Bright sunshine during the day facilitated the continuous flow of voters at the polling booths.
“Polling started at 8 am and continuing on a brisk note, it ended at 4 pm. Over 75% polling was reported from Khanpur while for laksar block it was 72 percent. At some places, polling continued even after 4 pm. We expect that the turnout would be more than 80 % when the final figure would come,” the district magistrate Harbans Singh Chugh told The Pioneer.
Notably, unlike lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections, the voters are not given ‘None of the Above’ (NOTA) option during the rural polls. The electoral ballot carries only the assigned election symbols. CDO Sonika said they had received no directive from the state election commission to incorporate the NOTA option.
Nearly 1.5 lakh voters are to elect their representatives in three-tier Panchayat elections among 2047 candidates left in the fray in the first phase. There were 71 booths for laksar block. There are 100 candidates for seven Zila Panchayat seats. For 40 BDC seats, the number of candidates is 350 and for 60 seats of Pradhan, 349 candidates are trying their electoral luck. There are total 797 candidates contesting for 590 Gram Panchayat seats.
In Khanpur block, the number of polling booths is 29. There are 39 contestants for two Zila Panchayat seats while the figure is 111 for 21 BDC seats. The number of contestants for 23 Gram Pradhans is 115 while 186 candidates are contesting from 245 Gram Panchayat seats. A total of 1,50,740 voters will decide the fortune of the contestants.
In all, fortune of 2047 contestants has been sealed in the ballot boxes on Monday for which the counting would be held on January 5.