Itanagar, December 15 (IANS). More than 57 percent voters exercised their franchise in the local body elections held on Monday in Arunachal Pradesh. Officials said that the elections were conducted in a completely peaceful atmosphere.
Voting was conducted for three-tier Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) across the state as well as two urban bodies Itanagar Municipal Corporation (IMC) and Pasighat Municipal Council (PMC). Strict security arrangements were made during the elections.
According to officials, the pace of voting was slow in the early hours of the morning due to cold, but the voting percentage increased as the day progressed. No major untoward incident was reported from any part of the state.
The state government had declared Monday a public holiday to increase voter participation. State Election Commission (SEC) Secretary Taru Talo said re-polling has been ordered in some gram panchayat areas of Namsai and Bichom districts.
He said the panchayat and municipal body elections were largely conducted peacefully, though the commission was still compiling all the reports and the final voting percentage would be released later. Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Chukhu Apa also said that the elections remained peaceful across the state.
“There was no report of any major violence except minor clashes between supporters of different parties at some places and voting took place in a cordial atmosphere,” he told the media.
More than 40,000 security personnel and around 15,000 polling personnel were deployed for the smooth conduct of the elections.
Chief Minister Pema Khandu cast her vote at Gyangkhar polling station in Tawang district. Earlier, he had appealed to the people of the state to vote in large numbers in the Panchayat elections and IMC and PMC elections.
“Your vote is extremely important to strengthen grassroots democracy, promote community development and ensure a better future for our children,” the Chief Minister wrote on social media platform ‘X’.
Meanwhile, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already won 58 Zilla Parishad seats unopposed, while the National People’s Party (NPP) has secured one seat. Four BJP candidates have been elected unopposed in IMC. Apart from this, a total of 5,037 BJP candidates have also been declared elected without contest for Gram Panchayat seats.
Overall, 440 candidates are in the fray for 186 Zilla Parishad seats. At the same time, 39 candidates are contesting for 16 wards of IMC and 21 candidates are contesting for eight wards of PMC. There are a total of 8,31,648 voters in the state, of which 7,59,210 are eligible for the panchayat bodies and 72,438 municipal bodies.
According to an SEC official, 2,171 polling stations were set up for the panchayat elections, while 67 polling stations were set up for IMC and 12 for PMC. The number of women voters in Panchayat elections was more than that of men. Electronic voting machines (EVMs) were used in the municipal elections, while voting was done through ballot papers in the Panchayat elections. Counting of votes will be done on December 20.
–IANS
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