Tamil Nadu: 74.37% Voters Turn Out To Cast Their Votes In First Phase Of Civic Polls

The second phase of the polling was scheduled to take place on October 9 and the counting of votes would take place on October 12.

Chennai: About 74.37 per cent voters turned out to cast their votes in the first phase of rural local body polls in the nine newly-formed districts to select their representatives on Wednesday. The elections took place in a peaceful manner except for a few minor clashes between DMK and AIADMK supporters in Ranipet and Kallakurichi districts.

The first phase of election took place for the posts of 78 district panchayat ward members, 755 panchayat union ward members, 1,577 village panchayat presidents and 12,252 village panchayat ward members. The second phase of the polling was slated for October 9 and the counting would happen on October 12.

According to a report in IANS, Voters from Amundi panchayat in Katpadi panchayat union of Vellore district boycotted the election after the state election commission refused to consider their demand of reversing the panchayat president post that was reserved for Scheduled Caste (woman).

The villagers alleged that only two women and a man belonging to SC community reside in the panchayat and reserving panchayat president post for SC (woman) was unacceptable.

The report said, minor issues were observed at a few places in Ranipet, Kallakurichi and Tenkasi district as supporters of AIADMK and DMK complained that names of some of the voters were not in the voters’ lists. The issues were settled after the presiding officers allowed the voters to exercise their franchise after verifying their voter ID cards and other necessary documents.