Amid the Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic, the Andhra Pradesh Grama Panchayat elections reported a massive voter’s turnout of 81.78 %.
On the 9th of February, the first phase of the Andhra Pradesh Grama Panchayat elections were held.
The voting started at 6:30 A.M., and continued till 3:30 P.M.
Amid the clashes between the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP,) voting went smoothly without any violence.
While the polling started with a low 8 % voters turnout, by 10:30 A.M., the percentage went to 43.97 %, followed by overall to 81.12 % by 2:30 P.M., and 81.78 % by the end of the day.
The State Election Commission (SEC) said, “The percentage of polling recorded is 81.78 per cent which is satisfactory. Krishna District has recorded the highest percentage of 85.06 per cent.”
In addition, the State Election Commission (SEC) of Andhra Pradesh made all the necessary arrangements for the smooth conduct of the first phase of the elections.
Vijayawada commissioner of police B. Srinivasulu and the Superintendent of police M. Ravindranath Babu visited the polling stations and inspected the polling process and security arrangements.
In addition, Md. Imtiaz, the Collector of Krishna district, inspected the polling through web casting, arranged at the camp office.
There were 234 sarpanch posts, of which 23 were elected unanimously and a total of 545 candidates contested for the remaining 211 Sarpanch posts.
Meanwhile, for ward members, elections were held for the 2,110 wards of which a total of 392 candidates were elected unanimously.
For the remaining ward members post, 4,533 candidates were in the fray and contested the Grama Panchayat elections’ first phase.
The remaining three phases of the Andhra Pradesh Grama Panchayat elections are scheduled to be held on the 13th, the 17th and the 21st of February.
Stay tuned for further updates.
