Zilla parishad poll turnout over 64%

Zilla parishad and panchayat samiti elections on Tuesday saw nearly 64.03 per cent voters exercising their franchise in 13 talukas of Pune district till 5.30 pm.

Zilla parishad and panchayat samiti elections on Tuesday saw nearly 64.03 per cent voters exercising their franchise in 13 talukas of Pune district till 5.30 pm. The polls were peaceful and started at 7.30 am with the early part of the day seeing low attendance at booths. The numbers picked up in the second half. The highest turnout in the district,73 per cent was recorded at Indapur,followed by Junnar and Baramati (68 per cent). Haveli taluka had the lowest of 55 per cent.

Over 25 lakh citizens were to cast their votes for the Zilla Parishad (ZP) and Panchayat Samiti elections on Tuesday. District Collector Vikas Deshmukh said the poll process went off peacefully with no reported incident of crime. Nearly,5,000 EVMs were used from the state election commission for the polls.

There was just one case of change in the control unit of the machine reported at Khed while there were just a few cases of ballot unit changes reported in Ambegaon. The machines did not give us any trouble, said Deshmukh who had inspected all the machines and conducted training of over 22,000 staff.

There were 3,984 booths for the 13 talukas.

Deshmukh added that nearly 1,000 staff,police and Rapid Action Force personnel were deployed for the poll. For the coming ten days,we would have police personnel posted at all 13 talukas where sealed ballot boxes are to be kept under tight security with counting scheduled for February 17 along with municipal corporation polls, he said.

The district administration had put in place a number of measures to ensure free and fair elections. Sale of liquor was prohibited on Monday and Tuesday. All establishments within 100 metres of polling booths remained shut on polling day. The 75 Pune zilla parishad seats had 311 candidates and 150 panchayat samiti seats had 561 candidates.

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Vikas Deshmukh