Polling for second phase of Panchayati Raj elections in 12 districts of the State was held on Friday.
The polling was by and large peaceful as no incident of any untoward incident was reported. Polling started on a slow note at 8 am on the day with 12.70 per cent voters exercising their franchise till 10 am. The polling picked up soon after and till 12 pm, 29.65 per cent voting was reported in all 31 blocks which went to the polls on the day. The State Election Commission (SEC) data shows that 46.02 voter turnout was reported till 2 PM which jumped to 50.41 per cent till 4 pm.
Long queues were seen outside many booths at close of the polling. Till 4 pm 71.57 per cent voting was reported from the Udham Singh Nagar district. A healthy voter turnout of 67.17 per cent was reported from Uttarkashi district.
In these elections 6,354 candidates were in fray for 2,659 posts of Village Pradhans and for 1,037 posts of member block Panchayats 3,195 candidates are in the contest. For the post of member district Panchayat, 573 candidates were in the fray for 119 seats.
In the second phase voters of 2,659 village Panchayats of 31 blocks belonging to 12 districts of the State baring Haridwar exercised their franchise.
Enthusiasm among the voters to elect their representatives was clearly visible on the day as women and elderly came out in large numbers to vote.
State Election Commissi-oner Chandrasekhar Bhatt said the ballot boxes will start arriving at the strong rooms made at the block headquarters after end of polling.
The voting for second phase of Panchayat elections were held at Chaukhutiya, Dwarahat, Tadikhet and Bhaisiachena blocks of Almora district, Bajpur, Kashipur and Jaspur blocks of Udham Singh Nagar district and Lohaghat and Barakot blocks of Champawat district.
Similarly, Berinag, and Gangolihat of Pithoragarh district, Kotabagh, Dhari and Ramgarh of Nainital district, Garud of Bageshwar district and Chinyalisaur and Naugaon blocks of Uttarkashi went into polls on the day.
Karnprayag, Gairsain and Pokhri blocks of Chamoli district and Dholdhar, Johnpur and Pratapnagar blocks of Tehri district also went to polls on the day.
In Dehradun, voting was held at the Sahaspur and Kalsi blocks while in Rudraprayg district the voters of Jakholi block went to polls.
In Pauri district the voting was held at Yamkeshwar, Dwarikhal, Jaiharikhal, Ekeshwar and Duggada blocks.
The counting of votes would be done on October 21 and the results are expected to be declared on the same day.
