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.
