The Hindu 20.09.2013
Polls to ULBs pass off peacefully
About 68 per cent of the nearly 18 lakh voters exercise franchise
Barring a few stray incidents, polling in the 66 urban
local bodies of the State passed off peacefully amid tight security on
Thursday.
According to the State Election Commission,
about 68 per cent of the 18 lakh-odd voters exercised their franchise
when polling was conducted from 8 am to 5 pm during the day. The
counting of votes will be held on Friday.
The polling
also passed off peacefully in the Maoist affected districts of
Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada and Nabarangpur. An average of 60 per cent
votes was polled in the urban local bodies in these districts. The
highest of 70 per cent votes were polled in Umerkote notified area
council in Nabarangpur.
As the voting ended in the
evening, the fate of the 3000-odd candidates was sealed in EVMs as the
voters exercised their franchise in 1,966 booths to elect 1,101 ward
members and corporators in the 66 ULBs in 20 districts of the State.
There was delay in polling at a few booths as the electronic voting
machines developed technical snag.
Polling was extended by an hour in the booths the EVMs were replaced following technical snag.
Non-functioning
of the EVMs forced the authorities to postpone the polling till Friday
at two booths in a ward in Vyasanagar Municipality in Jajpur district.
The counting of the votes in Vyasanagar will be done on Saturday.
As
a total of 561 booths were identified as sensitive and 108 booths were
identified as hypersensitive, adequate security arrangements were made
at those booths to ensure peaceful polling.
No untoward incident
Polling
for the volatile and tense elections for Berhampur Municipal
Corporation on Thursday was completed amidst tight police security
without any untoward incidents.
As per election
officials for the BMC polls, 55.22 per cent of the voters in the city
exercised their franchise. Polling was conducted in 218 polling booths.
One hundred and nine polling booths meant for BMC elections had been
identified as hypersensitive. Eighty nine polling booths of BMC area
were identified as sensitive.
To check any
possibility of efforts by any miscreant to terrorize voters or to
disrupt polling process, one platoon of commando striking force was also
on patrol around the city during the polling process.
As
per the Berhampur Superintendent of Police (SP) Anirudh Singh, these
commandoes had orders for shoot at sight to curb any kind of violent
menace by miscreants during polling process.
Apart
from the SP, the Ganjam district collector Krishen Kumar and Deputy
Inspector General (DIG) of police, Amitabh Thakur moved around the city
to monitor the law and order and smooth conduct of polls. Over 20
platoons of police personnel including 15 platoons of Odisha State Armed
Police (OSAP) have been deployed in the city during the polling
process. Twenty six patrolling vehicles with armed police personnel
moved around the city. Armed police had been deployed in hypersensitive
booths.
Polling continued at brisk pace at all the
booths from 8am. Although it was expected that polling may become higher
in the afternoon, torrential rains that started from around 3.30pm
slightly reduced flow of voters to booths in the last phase of polling
that continued till 5pm.
Counting of votes for the BMC elections would be held on Friday.
