Stage set for Phase II PR polls in Andhra Pradesh

Amaravati: Arrangements have been made for conducting the second phase of panchayat elections in 18 revenue divisions of 13 districts to be held on Saturday. The polling will be conducted from 6.30 am to 3.30 pm. Of the total 33,570 ward members, 12,604 ward members were elected unanimously.

Of the 2,789 sarpanch posts only one nomination was filed in Kurnool and Srikakulam district. For the 20,817 ward member elections 44,876 candidates are in the fray. The State Election Commission set up 29,304 polling stations, including 5,480 sensitive and 4,181 hyper sensitive polling stations. The Election Commission made special arrangements following Covid guidelines by making arrangements for supply of masks, sanitisers, gloves and PPE kits wherever necessary.

As many as 16,788 supervisors were entrusted with the counting process. A command control room was set up in the Panchayat Raj Commissionerate office and webcasting arrangements have been made to monitor the polling from Amaravati. Awareness programmes were conducted on the balloting process as confusion prevailed among voters while exercising their franchise as the names of candidates were not found in the ballot paper in the first phase.