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चैत्र कृष्ण पक्ष, शुक्रवार, चर्तुथी

News

No voting in 3 south Kashmir districts


Date:- 05 Dec 2018


Panchayat poll: 75.3% turnout in 7th phase I Jammu records 84.8% polling, Valley 30.3%

Arteev Sharma

The seventh phase of the nine-phase panchayat elections in the state on Tuesday witnessed a voting percentage of 75.3 with Jammu division recording a high 84.8 per cent turnout. There was, however, a complete boycott of the polling process in the terror-hit south Kashmir’s three districts — Pulwama, Kulgam and Shopian — due to the non-availability of contestants.

A total of 30 blocks — 16 in Kashmir Valley and 14 in Jammu division — spread over nine districts in Kashmir and six in Jammu were scheduled to go to the polls in the seventh phase. The six districts of the Valley that witnessed polling had a turnout of 30.3 percent with north Kashmir’s Kupwara recording a maximum of 45 per cent followed by 30.9 per cent in Ganderbal.

According to the official sources, there were 45 sarpanch seats and 361 panch constituencies in the three south Kashmir districts that did not witness polling. Of them, five sarpanch seats and 22 panch seats received only single nomination, which led to the unopposed election of the candidates.

“For the remaining 40 sarpanch seats and 339 panch constituencies, no nomination papers were filed mainly because of terror threats and boycott call made by separatists. Consequently, no voting took place in these three districts,” a source said.

All six districts of Jammu recorded an overwhelming response of voters as over 83 per cent polling was recorded in each district of the region today. The maximum voting was recorded in Reasi district with 86.7 per cent voters turning up at polling booths followed by 86.6 per cent in Poonch and 85.5 per cent in Samba district.

The three blocks — Bishnah, Arnia and Suchetgarh — in Jammu district that saw great voter enthusiasm recorded 83.7 per cent polling despite the fact that at least 59 polling stations out of the total 486 were near the International Border.

Shaleen Kabra, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), J&K, said at least 85 sarpanches and 912 panches had been elected unopposed while polling took place for 341 sarpanch and 1,798 panch seats, with 5,575 candidates in the fray. There was an electorate of 4,75,865 for sarpanch seats and 3,45,880 for the panch constituencies.

In this phase, a total of 2,714 polling stations were established — 576 in Kashmir division and 2,138 in Jammu division. Of the 892 stations categorised as hypersensitive, 428 were in Kashmir and 464 in the Jammu division.

In the earlier six phases, the overall voter turnout was 73.6 per cent for the state, with 46.1 per cent polling in the Kashmir division and 82.8 per cent in the Jammu division.

Courtesy:The Tribune Dec 05,2018