Panchayat polls: Voting underway in Punjab
Wednesday, 03/07/2013
http://www.punjabnewsline.com/news/panchayat-polls-voting-underway-in-punjab/82041
CHANDIGARH: Polling for over 13,000 Gram Panchayats across Punjab kick started amid tight security on Wednesday. Over 50,000 police personnel have been deployed across the length and breadth of the state to ensure free, fair and peaceful voting.
The State Election Commission has expressed satisfaction at the arrangements for today’s polls which the candidates are not contesting on party symbols.
According to the EC, 27,759 candidates are fighting it out for 13,080 seats for the post of sarpanch and over one lakh are contesting for 81,412 panch seats.
As many as 1,900 sarpanches and 21,251 panches have already been elected unopposed – these include 214 sarpanches from Gurdaspur, 198 from Patiala and 177 from Jalandhar; 2404 panches from Hoshiarpur, 2283 from Jalandhar and 2067 from Ludhiana.
The counting of votes will take place soon after the polling is over.
