Himachal Panchayat polls record 75-80 per cent turnout

Nearly 75 to 80 per cent polling was reported in the second phase of the Panchayat elections in Himachal Pradesh today.
"Voting for first round of the second phase of Panchayat polls in the state was held peacefully today and as per preliminary reports, 75 to 80 per cent voting had been reported in 732 panchayats," state Election Commissioner T G Negi said.
Barring stray incidents of ballot papers gone missing, the polling was peaceful and no untoward incident was reported from any part of the state.
As many as 743 out of 3,243 panchayats went to polls today and the turnoutof women was comparatively heavy.

Negi informed that the voting had been rescheduled for Badhal panchayat of Jubbal area in Shimla district where 29 blank ballot papers were found missing before the voting.
Out of these 22 ballot papers had been traced while seven papers were still missing.

An FIR has been registered in this regard at police station, Jubbal.
Similarly, 50 blank ballot papers were found missing in Khamadi Panchayat of Nankhari area in Shimla district, the Election Commissioner said.
The result of this panchayat had been withheld and would be declared after the clearance of these papers, he said.
Negi said that 5,371 polling parties were deployed at the polling stations for first round of poll.

He said that voting for 790 panchayat would be held on January 3 for which 5,796 polling centres had been set up while 554 Panchayats would go for poll in third round on January5 for which 4,712 polling centres had been set up.