Bhubaneswar: Polling for the fifth and the final phase of three tier Panchayat elections recorded a turnout of 60 per cent till 12 pm today, sources in the State Election Commission (SEC) said.
The State Election Commission (SEC) said the polling percentage is likely to increase since voting is still going on. Voters who have been issued tokens by 12 pm will be allowed to exercise their franchise, it added
Barring stray incidents of violence at some places, polling in the remaining areas went on smoothly. Long queues could be seen in at the polling booths with women and elderly persons waiting all to exercise their franchise.
Polling went on smoothly in the Maoist infested districts in the state with deployment of adequate security personnel at some sensitive and hypersensitive booths.
Polling was held for 16,148 ward members, 1173 Samiti members in 150 Zilla Parishad zones in 58 blocks of 26 districts in which a total of 44,50,893 voters exercised their franchise. Counting of votes began at 1 pm.