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90 per cent voting in commune panchayat elections

Special Correspondent

Counting will take place region-wise simultaneously tomorrow

— Photo: T. Singaravelou

EXERCISING HER RIGHT: A visually impaired voter comes out of a booth in Ariyankuppam near Pondicherry after exercising her franchise in the commune panchayat poll held on Saturday.

Pondicherry: An estimated 90 per cent of the 1,53,377 voters spread over the four commune panchayats of Ariyankuppam, Bahoor, Mannadipet and Nettapakkam (all in the Pondicherry region) exercised their franchise in the third and final phase of poll on Saturday. The election was to constitute the commune panchayats and also the village panchayats in their purview.

District Collector cum District Election Officer of Pondicherry G. Theva Needhi Dhas told newsmen after the poll that the turnout of women voters was more than their male counterparts in all the wards. The information available from the presiding officers to the State Election Commission pointed out that against 66,200 men voters who exercised their franchise, the number of women voters were around 71,000. He said that there were 1,571 contestants for 499 posts of councillors of commune panchayats, village panchayat presidents and the village ward members in Saturday's election. Besides these, 44 candidates (37 ward members, two councillors and five village panchayat presidents) were declared elected unopposed during the scrutiny of the papers recently.

Mr. Theva Needhi Dhas and Additional Senior Superintendent of Police B. Srikanth (who was also present at the press briefing) said that except for three minor incidents the polling went off peacefully. Brisk to heavy polling was seen as the day advanced. The counting of votes polled on Saturday and also in the earlier two phases will take place region wise simultaneously on July 3.

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90 per cent voting in commune panchayat elections

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