Bhubaneswar: Approximately 70% of 41.88 lakh voters exercised their franchise in the fifth and final phase of panchayat elections in the state on Thursday.
According to State Election Commission (SEC), the elections in the last phase were held for 131 zilla parishad member posts in 975 panchayats under 48 blocks of 25 districts. As many as 13,514 booths were set up for the voters to cast their votes this time.
Stating that the election was mostly peaceful, the Commission said there were reports of violent incidents which created disturbances in the polling process in some parts of the state. After getting the detailed reports on those incidents from the district collectors, the SEC would take a decision on the polling.
For the entire panchayat election, total 91,913 booths were opened for 2.79 crore voters to exercise franchise. The elections were held for total 1,06,353 posts in the three-tier panchayati raj institutions this time.
While total 2.20 lakh candidates contested the elections, the SEC declared 36,523 ward members, 126 sarpanch, 326 panchayat samiti members and one zilla parishad member winner uncontested.
The Commission further stated that more than one lakh state government employees were engaged in election duty, while around 40,000 police personnel were deployed to maintain law and order during the elections.
The SEC has announced to pay ex gratia of Rs 15 lakh to the families of each police personnel killed in a road mishap in Nabarangpur district.
