Punjab gram panchayat polls see 77 pc voter turnout: Election Commissioner

Chandigarh, Oct 16 (IANS) Seventy-seven per cent voter turnout has been recorded in Punjab as per the data received from Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Election Officers for the gram panchayat elections, State Election Commissioner Raj Kamal Chaudhuri said on Wednesday.

He said Mansa district remained at the top with a poll percentage of 83.27 per cent, while Tarn Taran district saw the lowest at 64.40 per cent.

A total of 68.12 per cent polling has been recorded in Amritsar district, 79.43 per cent in Bathinda district, 75.21 per cent in Barnala district, 78.47 per cent in Fatehgarh Sahib district, 70.21 per cent in Faridkot district, 75.14 per cent in Ferozepur district, 82.31 per cent in Fazilka district, 69 per cent in Gurdaspur district, 69.78 per cent in Hoshiarpur district and 66.30 per cent in Jalandhar district.

Chaudhuri said 66.14 per cent polling has been recorded in Kapurthala district, 67.1 per cent in Ludhiana district, 77.22 per cent in Malerkotla district, 69.91 per cent in Moga district, 76.93 per cent in Mohali district, 78.27 per cent in Sri Muktsar Sahib district, 69.52 per cent in SBS Nagar district, 73.57 per cent in Patiala district, 79.20 per cent in Pathankot district, 77 per cent in Ropar district and 79.45 per cent in Sangrur district.

Two incidents of firing were reported with four being injured in Tarn Taran and two injured in another incident in Patiala during voting on Tuesday.

Also, two government employees died owing to poor health as polling for over 13,000 gram panchayats was underway.

The polling for approximately 1.05 lakh candidates contesting for the posts of panch and sarpanch was held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. with voting happening through ballot boxes, officials said.

The State Election Commission cancelled the polling at Dalla and Pona villages in Ludhiana's Jagraon sub-division due to technical reasons.

The panchayat poll proceeded after the Supreme Court on Tuesday decided not to put a stay, saying there would be "chaos" if courts started staying elections on polling day.

"If polling has started today, how can we intervene at this stage? Probably the high court realised the gravity of it and vacated the stay on the elections," the bench, comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, headed by Chief Justice D. Y. Chandrachud said.

One of the deceased government employees has been identified as Lakha Singh, 53, a senior sub-inspector with the Punjab Police. Lakha was on poll duty in Dhilwan village of Barnala. Another employee was Amarinder Singh, a 36-year-old government school teacher from Fazilka, who was on poll duty in Jalandhar.

As many as 3,798 candidates have been unanimously elected for the position of sarpanch, while 48,861 candidates have been selected for the panch. Elections in 28 gram panchayats have been cancelled, and one has been halted. As a result, voting took place for 9,398 gram panchayats.

Candidates have been barred from using symbols of political parties, in keeping with the Punjab Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2024, passed last month by the Legislative Assembly.

Punjab has 1.33 crore registered voters, including 70.51 lakh men and 63.46 lakh women voters.