The voting for second stage of the three-tier panchayat elections in all the districts of Uttarakhand barring Haridwar would be held on Saturday. An electorate of 15,80,927 voters belonging to 2,638 Village Panchayats of 31 blocks of the State would exercise their franchise in the second stage of voting.
The State Election Commission has made all the preparations for free and fair conduct of the polls. The SEC has set up 2,848 polling stations and 3,487 polling booths for this stage. In the second stage 7,79,511 female and 8,01,416 male voters of 2,471 of 31 blocks of 12 districts would elect Member Village Panchayat, Pradhan village Panchayat, member Block Panchayat and Member District Panchayats.
The voters of Kalsi and Sahaspur blocks of Dehradun district, Kotaghat, Vetalnagar and Ramnagar blocks of Nainital district and Chokhutia, Dhwarahat and Tadikhet blocks of Almora district would participate in the polls on Saturday. Similarly Jaspur, Kashipur and Bajpur blocks of Udham Singh Nagar district, lohaghat and Barakot blocks of Champawat district, Dharchula, Munsiyari and Didihat blocks of Pithoragarh district , Garud block of Bageshwar district, Bhatwadi and Dunda blocks of Uttarkashi district, Gairsain, Karnprayag and Pokhri blocks of Chamoli district, Tholdhar, Johnpur and Pratapnagar blocks of Tehri district, Jakholi block of Rudraprayag district and Duggada, Yamkeshwar, Dwarikhal, Ekeshwar and Jaiharikhal blocks of Pauri Garhwal district would also elect their panchayat representatives on Saturday.
In these panchayat elections 22,114 candidates for the positions of Pradhan and 11,303 candidates for Member village Panchayat are left in the fray after the scrutiny and withdrawal of names. Similarly 11,904 candidates for Member block Panchayat and 2,315 candidates for Member district Panchayat are left in the electoral battle for the Panchayati Raj institution in the State.