Nearly 75 pc voter turnout recorded in panchayat polls in Arunachal: SEC

Itanagar, Dec 16 (PTI) A voter turnout of nearly 75 per cent was recorded in the panchayat polls in Arunachal Pradesh, the State Election Commission (SEC) said on Tuesday.

In the urban local body elections, voter participation stood at 51.39 per cent in the Itanagar Municipal Corporation, where 24,604 out of 47,877 electors exercised their franchise.

The Pasighat Municipal Council (PMC) recorded a higher turnout of 60.95 per cent, with 7,541 of the 12,373 eligible voters participating in the polling process, the SEC said.

Of the total 5,94,307 voters enrolled in the panchayats, 4,45,264 exercised their franchise, registering a turnout of 74.92 per cent across the state, it said.

The polling for 186 zilla parishad constituencies, 1,947 gram panchayat seats, 16 Itanagar Municipal Corporation (IMC) wards and eight Pasighat Municipal Council (PMC) wards was largely peaceful on Monday, it said.

In the panchayat elections, the highest polling percentage of 84.31 per cent was recorded in Longding district, while East Kameng reported the lowest turnout at 65.05 per cent.

In the municipal polls, the highest voting percentage was recorded at the government secondary school, Pasighat, under ward number 1 of the PMC, while the lowest was reported at the fishery director's office here, under ward number 3 of the IMC.

The commission also announced that repolling will be conducted on December 18 in select polling stations due to reported disturbances.

These include the Nongkhon gram panchayat segment in Namsai district, the Nisangjang/Besai gram panchayat in Bichom, multiple gram panchayat constituencies in Tirap and the Rotom polling station in Kamle.

Barring a few incidents of minor disturbances, the overall polling process concluded peacefully across the state without any major law and order issues.

Counting of votes is scheduled to be held on December 20. PTI UPL UPL BDC