75% voters' turnout in East Godavari

Rajamahendravaram: East Godavari district witnessed 74.83 per cent voters' turnout in the third phase of gram panchayat elections held in Rampachodavaram and Yetapaka revenue divisions on Wednesday. Over 1,86,354 voters exercised their franchise among the total voters of 2,49,028 in the polling conducted in 11 mandals.

Collector D Muralidhar Reddy said that the third phase panchayat elections were held smoothly in Rampachodavaram and Etapaka divisions. He visited polling stations in Maredumilli and Rampachodavaram divisions and inspected the polling and counting. The elections held for 172 grama panchayat sarpanch posts and 1271 ward posts out of 186 sarpanchs and 1,734 wards as 14 sarpanch posts and 448 wards have been elected as unanimous with filling of single nominations.

The Collector said that the Gram Panchayat elections in all the 11 mandals, including seven mandals inRampachodavaram mandals and four mandals in Yetapaka divisions were held smoothly. He said that the polling was held from 6.30 am by shifting the polling staff to the respective centres as scheduled. He said that voters enthusiastically exercised their right to vote.

As many as 1,10, 874 voters exercised their votes in Rampachodavaram division out of 1,54,381. And 71. 82 percent polling was recorded in the division. A total of 75,480 voters exercised their votes in Yetapaka division out of 94,647 registering 79.75 percent polling in the division. The highest turnout was recorded in Kunavaram mandal in Yetapaka division with 82.33 per cent while the lowest turnout was recorded in YRamavaram mandal in Rampachodavaram division with 63.29 per cent.

Election observer H Arun Kumar examined the polling pattern in several gram panchayats in Rampachodavaram and Yetapaka divisions.