Polling peaceful in Vizianagaram district

Vizianagaram: Third phase of gram panchayat elections were held in Vizianagaram revenue division in peaceful manner on Wednesday.

A voter turnout of 87.09 per cent was recorded in the district. Actually the elections were supposed to be held for the posts of 244 sarpanches and 2330 ward members. But 37 sarpanches and 610 ward members were elected unanimously.

So the polling was held for 207 sarpanches and 1,720 ward member posts. In all, 642 candidates were in the fray for sarpanch posts and 3,791 for ward members. In all 2,030 polling stations were set up in the division.

Collector M Hari Jawaharlal, SP B Rajakumari, Joint Collector G C Kishore and other officials visited various polling centres and instructed the officials to complete the polling and counting process in a smooth way. The Collector also visited the command control room and inquired with the staff about the poling trend and how the booth level officers were discharing their duties. The SP visited Chintalapeta and Chowduvada villages which are considered as hyper-sensitive and reviewed the situation there. Police have carried the senior citizens and brought them to the polling booths at Kondavelagada, Gollalapeta, Kondagumpam and Pedada. After the polling, the counting began at 4 pm.