Our Correspondent
Imphal, Oct. 11(EMN): The counting of the 5th General Panchayat elections begins under tight security from 8 in the morning across the district headquarters of six valley districts – Imphal West, Imphal East, Bishnupur, Jiribam, Kakching and Thoubal on Wednesday.
As the polling of the Panchayat elections was held using ballot papers on Oct. 7 and (re-polling in 29 polling stations) on October 9,the speed of the counting was not so fast as done in Electronic voting machine pattern.
Thus the result of only some candidates in ward members’ category comes out in the afternoon while results of almost all the Zilla Parishad and Pradhans seats are yet to be declared.
The Panchayat election which was held to elect new 60 Zilla Parishad members, 161 Pradhans and 1,513 ward members in 14 sub-divisions under six valley districts, is an important local body election in the state after BJP led coalition government replaces 15 year old congress rule in the NE state.
A total of 178 Zilla Parishads, 446 Pradhans and 2,556 ward members contested in the polls which saw a good response from the people.
Interestingly, 394 candidates, including 391ward members and three Pradhans (Porompat, Wangoi and Nambol) were declared elected uncontested. All election processes would be completed by October 16.
The term of the existing representatives expires on Oct.r 23.
