Around 50 per cent turnout was recorded till 2 pm as voting is underway in Haryana’s panchayati raj institutions (PRIs), for its second phase on Saturday. Preparations for this have been completed in nine districts and the polling will take place from 7 am to 6 pm, State Election Commissioner Dhanpat Singh said.
The voting began at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm, officials said.
Men, women and the elderly queued up at polling booths in these districts to cast their votes.
In Rohtak, 142 panchayats are currently undergoing voting. Elderly voters, including a 100 years old women has come to vote here.
The districts include — Ambala, Charkhi Dadri, Gurugram, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Rewari, Rohtak, Sirsa and Sonipat.
There are 48,67,132 eligible voters for the second phase.
Polling will be held for the post of 2,683 sarpanches and 25,655 panches in 57 blocks, Singh said.
Voting will take place in 5,963 polling stations, out of which 976 are sensitive and 1,023 are highly sensitive stations.
In the 9 districts, Singh said, all the “preparations related to security and other facilities have been completed,” and heavy police force has been deployed in sensitive polling booths.
“Necessary guidelines have been issued to all deputy commissioners, superintendents of police and supervisors concerned for conducting the polls in a fair and peaceful manner,” Singh said in a statement.
In the second phase, voting was also held on November 9.
On Wednesday, over 69 per cent voter turnout was recorded and polling was held peacefully.
Voting for 1,244 panchayat samiti members and 158 zila parishad members in 57 blocks of nine districts — Ambala, Charkhi Dadri, Gurugram, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Rewari, Rohtak, Sirsa, and Sonipat — began at 7 am and continued till 6 pm.
In a statement, Singh said, “33,44,672 voters exercised their voting rights till 7.30 pm, which is 69.1 per cent of the total voters of these nine districts.”
At some polling stations, voters were seen standing in queues even at 7:30 pm, he added.
In the first phase, polling for zila parishads and panchayat samitis was held on October 30 and polling for sarpanches and panches on November 2 in Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Jind, Kaithal, Mahendragarh, Nuh, Panchkula, Panipat and Yamunanagar.
Singh said 133 sarpanches were unanimously elected in the first phase, of which 74 are men and 59 women.
In the first phase, of 2,607 panchayats, 17,597 candidates filed nominations for the post of sarpanch and now 11,391 candidates are in the fray.
These include 6,044 men and 5,347 women, said an official statement.
The third and final phase of polling in the remaining districts to elect members of zila parishad and panchayat samitis will be held on November 22 and that of sarpanches and panches of gram panchayats on November 25.
While the results of the sarpanch and panch polls will be declared at the end of voting in each phase, results of zila parishads and panchayat samiti members will be declared on November 27 after all the three phases are completed.
With PTI inputs
