Panchayat elections:Phase II today, 4014 candidates in fray

Srinagar, Nov 19: Polling for Phase-II of Panchayat Polls-2018 will be held Tuesday at 2179 polling stations across the state, including 828 in Kashmir and 1351 in Jammu Division.

In a statement, Chief Electoral Officer, Shaleen Kabra said that 4,014 candidates are in the fray for 281 Sarpanch and 1286 Panch seats in Phase-II.

He said 90 Sarpanchs and 1069 Panchs have already been elected unopposed in Phase-II.

Kabra said 601 polling stations have been categorized as hypersensitive including 490 in Kashmir Division and 196 in Jammu Division.

He said in the areas going to polls in the Phase-II, electorate of 3,29, 818 will be voting for Sarpanch constituencies, 207796 for Panch constituencies.

Polling will be held from 8 am to 2 pm while counting of the votes will be taken up immediately after the voting is over.

The polls will be held in the border areas of Kupwara district like Kalaroos, Machil, and Rajwar. Similarly, the polls will be held in two Panchayat constituencies of Bandipora-Ganstan, Nowgam.

In Baramulla, the elections will be held at Wagoora and Sangrama.

In central Kashmir’s Budgam and Ganderbal districts, polls will be held at Kangan, Rathsun, and Budgam panchayat constituencies.

At the same time, most of the areas where there is a larger presence of militancy will face elections in the last phases.

However, two Panchayat constituencies of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, Bijbehara and Anantnag will witness polling.

However, there will be no elections in south Kashmir’s Pulwama, Shopian and Kulgam districts, and in summer capital Srinagar in the second phase.

Bhambatt, Karsha, Sankoo, Shaker, Chaktan,  Shargol, Lotchum of Kargil district and Khaltsi,  Skurbuchan,  Turtuk, and Panamik panchayat constituencies of Leh district too will face polls.

Polling will also take place in various constituencies of Jammu region.

In the phase I, Kashmir saw a 64 per cent voter turnout while nearly 75 per cent electorate exercised their right to franchise in Jammu region of panchayat elections on Saturday.

The first phase of the panchayat polls in the Valley was held in the traditionally high voter turnout belts along the Line of Control.

The polling in next eight phases will be held on November 24, 27, 29, December 1, December 4, December 8, and December 11.

The panchayat elections are being held in J&K after a gap of seven years. The last elections were conducted in 2011 and the panchayats had completed their five-year term in 2016.

The nine-phase panchayat polls are being held in the state to 316 blocks in 4,483 Panchayat Halqas comprising 35,029 Panch.