5th general Panchayat elections in Manipur underway

Our Correspondent Imphal, Oct. 7(EMN): More than 70 percent of the electorate of 7 lac. on Saturday, are believed to have voted in the 5th General Panchayat elections in Manipur that passed off peacefully, barring some poll related incidents. Re-polling is also likely in some of the polling stations. However there is no official poll percentage record till the report goes to the pres. Thus the fate of 3180 candidates including 178 Zilla Parishad,446 Pradhans and 2556 ward members have been sealed in ballot boxes. The day’s polling was held to elect new local body representatives including Zilla Parishad, Pradhan and ward members in 14 sub-divisions under six valley districts – Imphal West, Imphal East, Bishnupur, Jiribam, Kakching and Thoubal as the terms of the present representatives expire on Octt. 23, 2017. This time ballot paper was used in the election. Each voter has to cast his/her vote in secrecy in three ballot papers of three different colours. The ballot papers for Zilla Parishad is in pink colour,the ballot paper for Pradhan is in yellow colour and the ballot paper for Gram Panchayat Member is in white. A total of 7,16,813 voters including 3,48,139 males and 3,68,691 females are eligible to exercise their franchise across 1520 polling stations in the six valley districts to elect 60 Zilla Parishad members, 161 Pradhans and 1,513 ward members. A total of 9,126 security personnel at 6 personnel for each polling station, were utilised for the polls. Interestingly 394 candidates including 391ward members and 3 Pradhans(Porompat,Wangoi and Nambol) were elected without any contest. The counting will take place on Oct.11.