Panchayat Polls 2022: Voting for fifth phase in 25 districts of Odisha underway

Sambad English Bureau Published On : Feb 24, 2022 at 7:16 AM Updated On : Feb 23, 2022 at 10:20 PM

Bhubaneswar: Voting for the fifth and final phase of Panchayat Polls in Odisha began at 7 AM in 25 districts of the State today. Voters will be able to cast their votes till 1 PM.

Sources at the State Election Commission office informed a total of 41,88,382 voters will exercise their franchise during the fifth phase of the three-tier panchayat polls in 48 blocks. The polling will be held at a total of 13,514 booths in 131 Zilla Parishad zones and 975 Gram Panchayats during this phase.

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The sources added as many as 520 candidates have been contesting for Zilla Parishad positions in the final phase of the rural polls.

The final phase bears much significance as people in Swabhiman Anchal, the erstwhile cut-off areas of Chitrakonda block, in the Maoist-infested Malkangiri district will exercise their franchise after a gap of 15 years.

Villagers of Jodamba, Panasput, Andarapali, Jantri, Ralegarh and Gajalmamudi village in the Swabhiman Anchal will cast their votes to elect candidates for two Zilla Parishad (ZP), 18 Sarpanch and 200 Ward Member positions.

As many as 41,582 voters will exercise their franchises at 222 polling stations in Chitrakonda today.

Villagers of the Swabhiman Anchal had last took part the polling process in 2007. In the previous years, elections were postponed in the area due to Maoist menace.

After a meeting with State Election Commissioner AP Padhi on February 23 evening, Odisha DGP Sunil Bansal informed security arrangement has been tightened in the Swabhiman Anchal in view of the fifth phase of panchayat polls.

He also expressed satisfaction at the percentage of voter turnout in Maoist-infested districts in the State this year during the last four phases.

“The Odisha Police will continue to provide security to ballot boxes and ballot paper till end of the counting of votes,” Bansal said.

The DGP further informed persons who were involved in the attack on Journalists during the third phase have been forwarded to the court.