50% voting across state in civic body polls
Voter fatigue took its toll on voting percentage with at least 50 per cent of the over 51 lakh eligible voters casting their vote in the almost incident-free civic body elections in Haryana today. Voting started on a slow note at 8 am and continued well past 6 pm, the official deadline for voting. Over 23.62 lakh voters exercised their right to vote.
The final figures are yet to be compiled by the State Election Commission and the final count is set to increase, sources said. The traditional rivals, the Congress and BJP, are locked in a straight fight in the Municipal Corporation elections.
State Election Commissioner Dhanpat Singh termed the poll as peaceful saying that the poll process was a smooth affair. The counting of votes is scheduled to be held on March 12. The lowest voting percentage of just 29 per cent was reported for the bypoll for the mayoral post for the Sonepat Municipal Corporation. This was followed by 33 per cent polling for mayoral bypoll for the Ambala MC.
The highest percentage of nearly 65 per cent was reported at Manesar where people voted to elect their first Municipal Corporation.
Among the Municipal Corporations, Hisar, Rohtak and Yamunanagar reported about 54 per cent voting, Gurugram 45 per cent, Faridabad 40.6 per cent, Karnal 48.2 per cent and Municipal Councils Ambala Sadar 50 per cent, Thanesar 51 per cent and Sirsa 56 per cent.
The 21 Municipal Committees reported high voting with the smaller civic bodies reporting 75 to 80 per cent voting.
Votes are also cast for the byelections for the president’s post of Municipal Council Sohna (Gurugram), Municipal Committee Assandh (Karnal) and Municipal Committee Ismailabad (Kurukshetra).
