J&K witnesses 39% turnout in last phase
ALL THE NINE PHASES OF THE PANCHAYAT ELECTIONS REMAINED PEACEFUL WITH LOW VOTER TURNOUT AT MANY PLACES
SRINAGAR : The election process for local bodies and panchayat polls, which began in September, came to an end with peaceful conduct of the ninth and last phase on Tuesday.
An overall 38.8% voter turnout was registered in the final phase, which was held across seven districts of Kashmir where 452 polling stations had been set up.
Kupwara witnessed 53.6%, Bandipore 46%, Baramulla 38.9%, Ganderbal 20.9% Budgam 38.8%, Anantnag 24.8% while south Kashmir’s Pulwama witnessed only 1.4% polling.
At least 346 polling stations had been categorised as ‘hypersensitive’ in the last phase. No untoward incident was reported from anywhere during the polls that started at 8am and ended at 2 pm.
The nine-phased panchayat elections started on November 17. Unlike the municipal polls, the panchayat elections are being held on a non-party basis.
A total of 430 candidates were in the fray for 55 sarpanch and 138 panch posts.
In all, 68 sarpanch and 433 panch positions were filled in this phase without polling as candidates were declared elected unopposed.
A total of 68,745 voters were eligible for voting in the sarpanch constituencies and 20,688 in panch constituencies.
All the nine phases of the panchayat elections remained peaceful with low voter turnout at many places. Separatist amalgam – Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) led by Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik had asked people to stay away from the polls while threat calls were given by militants to voters and contestants for participating in the polls.
In the eighth phase, 79.9% voting was witnessed with 85.1% polling in Jammu and 49.6% in Kashmir
While the separatists had called for a boycott of the elections, the state’s two biggest political parties, National Conference and the Peoples’ Democratic Party, abstained from the election process citing an ‘atmosphere of fear’ and ‘lack of clarity’ surrounding the Centre’s stand on legal challenges in the Supreme Court to the state’s special status. However at many places the PDP and NC leaders contested panchayat elections and also won.