Gujarat gram panchayat elections: Voter turnout over 77 pc

Ahmedabad, Dec 20: The average voter turnout in the gram panchayat polls held in Gujarat was over 77 per cent, the state election commission said on Monday. Polls were held on Sunday to 8,686 gram panchayats and 48,573 wards using 37,000 ballot boxes across more than 23,000 booths, with results scheduled to be announced on Tuesday.

As per the update uploaded on the website of the state election body on Monday, the sarpanch election recorded a turnout of 77.03 per cent, while that of ward members was 72.92 per cent. A total of over 1.81 crore people were eligible to vote, it said. In sarpanch election, Dangs district reported the highest turnout of 84.92 per cent, followed by Tapi with 83.19 and Vadodara 82.12 per cent, while it was over 80 per cent in Patan, Kheda, Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad, it said.

The response in districts like Bhavnagar and Gir Somnath was comparatively tepid, with the turnout being 67.51 per cent and 69.64 per cent, respectively. Voting was being held afresh at six booths in Panchmahal, Amreli and Porbandar districts due to defective printing of ballot papers, the SEC added.

Polling had concluded peacefully on Sunday, barring allegations of rigging of votes at a polling booth in Gandhinagar, and a clash between candidates at a polling booth in Surendranagar district. In Rajkot, a constable thrashed a voter after he insisted on taking the mobile phone inside the polling booth.

The man was detained, and the incident was captured on camera. A total 27,200 candidates were in the fray for the posts of sarpanch, and 1,19,998 to become panchayat members. A gram panchayat election is fought by a candidate in his personal capacity and not on party symbols, though they remain affiliated to one party or another.

In gram panchayat polls, each person is required to cast two votes, one to elect the sarpanch and another for electing panchayat member for his ward. The election is seen as the last major test for political parties ahead of the Assembly elections scheduled in December next year. PTI