AP panchayat polls: Voting for 2,786 panchayats in second phase concludes peacefully; turnout at 81.61% – Politics News , NewsGater

Representative image. AFP

Amaravati: The second phase of voting for 2,786 panchayats in Andhra Pradesh ended peacefully with a voter turnout of 81.61 percent.

However, the State Election Commission (SEC), in a statement in Amaravati on Saturday, did not provide the total number of eligible voters.

Andhra Pradesh Police Director General Gautam Sawang said in a statement that the second phase of the polls ended peacefully.

According to figures provided by the SEC, Prakasam district witnessed the highest turnout at 86.60 while Srikakulam saw 72.87 percent.

Voting began at 6.30am and ended at 3.30pm. The vote counting began at 4 p.m., an election official said.

Elections were also held to elect 20,817 members of the ward.

With two phases completed, the elections will be held in another two phases until February 21.

Although elections would be held for 3,328 panchayat sarpanchs, 539 have been unanimously elected and no nominations were submitted for three villages, according to an official press release on Friday.

Up to 7,507 candidates vied for sarpanch positions and 44,876 were in the fray for members of the ward.

The elections were carried out with a ballot and without any symbol of political party.

In total, 29,304 polling stations were installed, of which 5,480 have been identified as sensitive and 4,181 as hypersensitive, according to the statement.

All necessary precautions were in place as per COVID-19 protocols amid tight security.

Meanwhile, the SEC issued orders directing the Krishna (rural) district police to file a case against the state Minister for Civil Supplies, Kodali Venkateswara Rao, for his alleged derogatory comments against the electoral body under section 504 ( intentional insults) and 506 (criminal intimidation), among others.