Bhubaneswar: Barring stray incidents, the first phase of Panchayat elections was held peacefully in Odisha on Wednesday with nearly 70 per cent voter turnout, State Election Commissioner Aditya Prasad Padhi said.
Polling started at 7 am and ended at 1 pm.
“Violence marred polling in three booths of Dhenkanal district, seven booths of Jajpur district, five booths of Puri district,” he added.
The SEC is likely to decide on the next course of action after receiving reports from district collectors. Repoll is likely in these booths.
Notably, the voter turnout in the 2017 Panchayat poll was around 76 per cent.
Polling for 200 Zilla Parishad (ZP) zones, 1,669 panchayats and 22,379 wards in 71 blocks across the state began at 7 am and it slowly picked up pace during noon with voter turnout remaining around 30 per cent till 11 am.
Around 60 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the polling hours of 7 am to 1 pm. The percentage increased by 10 more per cent as those who were at the booth by 1 pm were allowed to vote.
A total of 225 platoons of police forces were deployed. However, stray incidents of violence continued to pour in across polling booths in the state. Four correspondents of media organisations were allegedly attacked by miscreants at a booth in Badala panchayat under Kanas block in Puri district. Similarly, there were reports about miscreants allegedly snatching ballot boxes from booth No-9 in Kashijharia village of Chapamanik Gram Panchayat under Brahmagiri block in the same district. A clash between two groups disrupted the polling process over stealing ballot paper stamps at booth-1 in Sujanpur Panchayat.
Over 30 people from Tichhini village were injured after being attacked by miscreants inside booth-4 in Alanda Panchayat while five persons sustained injuries after being allegedly attacked by supporters of a political party at Nisibhanra village, both in Puri district.
In Mayurbhanj, nearly 500 voters of Sarajamdihi in Badapheni Ward number 1 boycotted polls after finding their names missing from the new electoral rolls. Only 64 people from the village found their names in the list.
In 2017, BJP emerged as the principal gainer by winning 297 of 846 zilla parishad seats while BJD won 473.
