Voting for final phase of GP polls concludes; DK records 78.69%, Udupi 75.42% voting

Voting for final phase of GP polls concludes; DK records 78.69%, Udupi 75.42% voting

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Dec 27, 2020: The polling for second and final phase of Gram Panchayat elections in Karnataka concluded on Sunday and the counting of votes will be taken up on December 30.

Dakshina Kannada district recorded 78.69% voting with Beltangady reporting 78.43%, Puttur 78.45%, Sullia 80.54%, and Kadaba 77.61%.

75.42% voting recorded in gram panchayats in three taluks of Udupi, polls for which was held on December 27. Kundapur recorded 76.09%, Karkala 76.21 and Kaup 73.08%.

The polling for second and final phase of Gram Panchayat elections in DK and Udupi concluded on Sunday and the counting of votes will be taken up on December 30. 75.42% voting recorded in Udupi district. pic.twitter.com/ce50YPmVJC

— Mangalore Today News (@mtodayteam) December 27, 2020

The polling was by and large incident free but for a small exchange of words between supporters of Amparu in Kundapur taluk over the issue of ferrying voters to the booth. Baindoor MLA B M Sukumar Shetty flouted Covid-19 norms by casting his vote without wearing a mask.

 

Election officials seized a set of chits carrying the symbols of candidates found outside the polling booth in Hantyar school in Puttur. Assistant commissioner Yathish Ullal noticed a voter holding the chit carrying symbols of candidates, following which he directed the officials to seize the chits.

Voting took place across 2,709 village panchayats in 109 Taluks of Karnataka. The polling began at 7 am and came to an end at 5 pm, the state election commission officials said.

The polling was by and large peaceful. Officials noted that there are 1,05,431 candidates in the fray for 39,378 seats at 20,728 booths in the final phase. A total of 3,697 candidates have been elected unopposed already. The first phase of the election had taken place on December 22. In all, elections took place in 5,728 villages in 226 Taluks of the state for 72,616 seats. As many as 2,22,814 candidates contested the election whereas 8,074 candidates were elected unopposed. There were 2.94 lakh voters in the Panchayat elections.

In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, masks and social distancing were made mandatory. The number of voters in each booth was reduced from 1,500 to 1,000. For the final phase, 80,000 policemen and security personnel were deployed for the safe conduct of elections. Besides them, Anganwadi, ASHA workers and Health Department officials were also roped in for poll duty. Though these polls don’’t take place on party symbols, all political parties have put in efforts to ensure that the candidate supported by them wins, so as to have their hold on grassroot level politics, which may prove advantageous for them in taluk or zilla panchayat and even assembly polls whenever it happens.