Gram Panchayat polls: Turnout 85%, voting generally peaceful

An estimated 85 per voters today exercised their franchise for elections to 13,080 Gram Panchayats and 81,412 wards across Punjab which were by and large peaceful.
The overall turnout was 85 per cent, State Election Commissioner S S Brar told reporters here.
The exercise was held to elect sarpanchs (village heads) and panchs (village members).
The polling was by and large peaceful with no report of any major untoward incident, Brar said.
The voting in 12 wards and three gram panchayats was cancelled due to technical reason and re-polling would be held in these constituencies later.
Over 52,000 police personnel were deputed to ensure free, fair and peaceful polling.