Panchayat polls: 84.03% voter turnout in Narsipatnam

Visakhapatnam: Narsipatnam registered 84.03 per cent voter turnout in the gram panchayat polls in Visakhapatnam district. On Saturday, the voters queued up in front of the polling stations at Narsipatnam to cast their votes. The elderly and the differently-abled were assisted by the cops and volunteers to the booths. Narsipatnam Sub-Collector and Deputy District Election Authority N Mourya and district gram panchayat election observer Praveen Kumar visited the polling centres and examined the arrangements made for the exercise.

A good number of voters arrived at the booths to exercise their franchise. Despite the presence of 80 sensitive and 88 hypersensitive gram panchayats, the second phase of the polling was conducted in a hassle-free manner. Of the 261 sarpanch posts, 22 were elected unanimously. The polling was held for 239 sarpanch and 2,184 ward member posts. Mandal special officers, mandal parishad development officers and the police ensured a smooth conduct of polls at the centres. Close to 1,800 police personnel were deployed for the revenue division polls.