Polls to 8,690 gram panchayats in Gujarat ended peacefully on Sunday with an average voter turnout of 47 per cent till evening, an official said. The average voter turnout for 48,573 wards stood at around 25.11 per cent, with districts such as Gandhinagar, Anand, Porbandar etc witnessing high turnout while areas like Dahod, Dangs, Devbhumi Dwarka, Narmada and Kheda seeing tepid numbers, data from the State Election Commission showed.
The polls, which were held with strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols, were peaceful except for allegations of rigging at one booth in Gandhinagar, and a clash between candidates at a booth in Surendranagar that led to suspension of voting, officials said. In another incident, which was captured on camera, a police constable thrashed a voter after he insisted on taking his mobile phone inside the polling booth. The man was detained.
Despite cold conditions in several places, people queued up to vote early in the morning, among them being a centenarian who showed her inked finger outside a booth in Aravalli. A total 27,200 candidates are in the fray for the post of sarpanch, while 1,19,998 are vying to become panchayat members. As many as 1,165 village panchayats and 9,613 wards have been declared as “totally uncontested”, where representatives were elected unopposed, as per the Gujarat State Election Commission. Another 473 sarpanchs have been elected in a partially uncontested process, it said.
A gram panchayat election is fought by a candidate in his personal capacity and not on political party symbols. The candidate, however, remains affiliated to one party or another. In gram panchayat polls, each voter is required to cast two votes, one to elect sarpanch and another for electing panchayat member for his ward. Polling was held in 23,112 booths, of which over 10,000 were declared sensitive or extremely sensitive, using 37,451 ballot boxes instead of EVMs due to a very high number of wards, the state election body said. Over 1.81 crore people are eligible to cast votes, including 93.6 lakh men and 88.3 lakh women.
The election, results of which will be declared in December 21, is seen as the last major test for political parties ahead of the state Assembly elections scheduled in December next year.
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