4th phase panchayat polls held in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: The fourth phase polling of the three-tier Panchayat election was held in 28 districts of the state on Sunday.

The polling was not conducted in Jharsuguda and Boudh districts.

The voting which began at 7 am concluded at 12 pm. The counting of votes would begin at 1 pm.

According to the State Election Commission (SEC), a total of 50,61,974 voters were supposed to exercise their franchise to elect 1324 Panchayat Samiti members and 18,876 Ward members in 162 Zilla Parishad (ZP) zones.

Protesting against the non-development of the area, locals in Angul district on Sunday boycotted voting during the fourth phase of the three-tier Panchayat polls.

According to reports, as many as 28 wards of Talamul and Talamula Sasan Gram Panchayats of the district boycotted the election.

The SEC has made elaborate security arrangements at all the sensitive booths with adequate deployment of security personnel.

“The district collectors and SPs have been instructed to hold panchayat polls peacefully. To ensure no threat to the polling parties, they have been given specific instruction to provide armed police force to accompany each polling party for their arrival at their respective booths,” said State Election Commission (SEC) secretary Rabindranath Sahu.

The panchayat polls are being held in five phases across the state. The fifth and final phase will be held on February 21.