Over 65% Of Voters Exercise Franchise In Urban Polls In Odisha

Bhubaneswar: More than 65% of voters exercised their franchise in the elections to urban local bodies (ULBs0 held in the state on Thursday.

After the end of the polling, the State Election Commission (SEC), in a release, stated that the elections to 106 ULBs, including 47 municipalities, 59 NACs and 3 municipal corporations were completed peacefully barring stray incidents of violence in some places.

The polling was conducted in 4,360 booths of 1,825 wards having a population of more than 40.55 lakh voters.

Overall turnout of voters in the state was more than 65%, the SEC said adding that 65% of voters exercised their franchise in Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC), 50% in Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and 47% in Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC).

The SEC further said the polling for chairperson post of Umerkote Municipality in ward No-8 has been withheld due to wrong ballot paper and will be conducted on Friday.

The voting process was disrupted in some booths due to snags in electronic voting machines (EVMs) initially. But the polling was completed smoothly after EVMs were rectified, the Commission added.