Shimla: Polling for 1,276 panchayats in the second phase of local body polls in Himachal Pradesh commenced at 7 am on Thursday, with 17,30,300 voters, including 8,55,597 females, 8,74,416 males and 17 belonging to the third gender, eligible to exercise their franchise.
Voting for 1,293 panchayats in the first phase was held on Tuesday, which recorded a voter turnout of 78.90 per cent. The polling for 1,274 panchayats in the third and final phase will be held on May 30.
The counting of votes is being taken up immediately after the polls except for block samiti and zila parishad members and four municipal corporations, the results for which will be announced on May 31.
As many as 10,854 office-bearers have been elected unopposed in the panchayat polls.
The elections are being held using colour-coded ballot papers – white for ward members, yellow for up-pradhans, green for pradhans, pink for panchayat samiti members and blue for zila parishad members.
Elections for Ward No. 2 of the Samwal panchayat in the Tissa Block of Chamba, which was postponed due to rule violations by some officials, will be held on May 30, Surjit Singh Rathore, Secretary, State Election Commission, said.
Around 50.89 lakh voters are eligible to vote in the three-phase polls to elect 31,182 public representatives, 3,754 pradhans, 3,754 up-pradhans, 21,654 ward members, 1,769 panchayat samiti members and 251 zila parishad members.
(Disclaimer: This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)