Stage set for first phase of panchayat polls

Hyderabad: After months-long indirect campaign by various parties, the stage is set for the first phase of the Gram Panchayat (GP) elections, which are supposed to be fought on non-party basis. The GP elections would be held on Thursday for 4,236 sarpanch posts and 37,440 ward member posts, with over 56 lakh voters exercising their franchise in over 37,000 polling stations.

Over 50,000-strong police force will be deployed for smooth conduct of the polls. The State Election Commission has taken steps for webcasting in 3,461 polling stations in the state.

State Election Commissioner Rani Kumudini said that distribution of all polling teams was done, and the elections will be held from 7:00 am to 1:00 pm. The counting will be taken up after the polling ends, and the results announced immediately. The voters can cast their vote by producing any of the 18 documents prescribed by the Commission.

In all, there are 56,19,430 voters, including 27,31,070 men and 28,78,159 women voters. There are 201 other category voters. The SEC said that there will be no election in five gram panchayats, where not a single nomination was filed.

As many as 396 sarpanchs were declared “elected unanimously”. In one gram panchayat, there is a court stay. In all, 12,960 candidates are in the fray for the sarpanch elections and 65,455 candidates for ward member offices. The Commission has appointed 3,591 returning officers and 93,905 polling personnel. There will be 2,489 micro observers. Over 45,000 ballot boxes are being utilised for the polling.

The Commissioner had warned that there should be no campaign like public meeting or through the electronic media after 5:00 pm on December 9. The Commission had directed the district administration to complete the distribution of photo voters slips by Wednesday evening. The voters can use the Te-Poll mobile application to locate their polling stations.

The Commission has also set up a call center facility with toll free number 9240021456.