Panchayat elections: Panchkula district sees 86.7% turnout

Panchkula, November 2

The four blocks of Panchkula district witnessed 86.7% polling for elections to 118 sarpanches and 105 panches today.

A total of 1,02,178 voters of the total 1,17,793 exercised their franchise in the panchayat elections in all four blocks. The highest polling was witnessed in Morni block (88.6%), followed by Pinjore (87.5%), Barwala (86.1%) and Raipur Rani block (85.9%).

Deputy Commissioner and District Election Officer Mahavir Kaushik said the voting process in all four blocks passed off peacefully.

He said elections were to be held for 135 sarpanches in the district, out of which 15 were elected unanimously, while no nomination was received for two. Similarly, of the 1,026 panches in the district, 852 were elected unanimously, while no nominations were received for 69.

He said polling was held for 118 sarpanches and 105 panches, including 37 sarpanches and 25 panches in Pinjore division, 19 sarpanches and 1 panch in Morni block, 23 sarpanches and 34 panches in Barwala block and 39 sarpanches and 45 panches in Raipur Rani. A total of 166 polling booths were set up in the district where polling was conducted from 7 am to 6 pm.

In the morning, the DC and Deputy Commissioner of Police Surender Pal Singh visited polling stations and took stock of the election process there.

Kaushik said a sufficient number of police personnel were deployed outside each polling station to maintain law and order. The election to the post of sarpanch was conducted through EVM and for panch through ballot paper.