Over 68% turnout in first phase of panchayat polls

Ranchi: Jharkhand registered an overall turnout of 68.15% in the first phase of voting for the much-delayed three tier-panchayat election on Saturday. In 2015, the first phase turnout stood at 75.49%. However, officials maintained that the ongoing polls began on an encouraging note without any major untoward incidents across the state.
Notwithstanding the heat and humid weather conditions in several districts coupled with poll boycott calls in some pockets by extremists, people queued up at polling booths in good numbers even before the actual start of the polling at 7 am to exercise their franchisee. The state election commission (SEC) secretary, R S Prasad, said, “Overall turnout is 68.15% so far.” He added that the entire polling went on smoothly barring some minor issues in a handful of polling booths in Bokaro, Chatra and Seraikela-Kharsawan districts where re-pollings were conducted.
Among the districts that went to the polls, Deoghar witnessed the highest turnout of 76.26%, followed by Pakur (75.06%), Sahebganj (73.60%), and Dhanbad 73%. Five other districts, too, registered 70% plus voting and the rest were between the 60-70 percentage bracket.
In the 2015 election, all 24 districts went to polls at one go covering 72 blocks across 21 districts. This time, the polling is split into four phases. The remaining phases will be held on May 19, 24 and 27.
On the turnout, another SEC official added, “One has to also take into account the period to compare the turnout between the previous election and the current one. Last time, the polls were held in December when many returned to their villages during the harvesting season.”