Bhubaneswar: The first phase of voting for the three-tier panchayat polls in Odisha ended Wednesday with a voter turnout of 70 per cent, SEC Aditya Prasad Padhi said.
He however, said that the polling percentage may go up as final reports are yet to come in. Polling however, was marred by incidents of violence in many of the districts.
Notably, the voter turnout in the 2017 panchayat polls was around 78 per cent while the figure stood at 76.65 per cent in the first phase. Voting started at 7.00am and ended at 1.00pm.
However, at places where voters had queued up before 1.00pm, they were allowed to exercise their franchise. Padhi informed that violence has been reported in three booths of Dhenkanal district, seven in Jajpur district and five in Puri district.
The next course of action for the violence-hit booths will be determined after receiving reports from district collectors, Padhi said.
The Election Commissioner said instructions have been issued to the DGP to ensure law and order during the next four phases of the panchayat polls. The DGP has also been directed to take strong action against law-breakers.
As per reports, some miscreants allegedly looted a ballot box from booth No. 9 in Kasijharia village under Chapamanik panchayat of Brahmagiri block in Puri.
Four correspondents of media organisations were allegedly attacked by miscreants at a booth in Badala panchayat under Kanas block in Puri district.
A clash between two groups disrupted the polling process at booth No. 1 in Sujanpur panchayat. Miscreants attacked presiding officer Purnachandra Raula in Nihalprasad under Gondia block of Dhenkanal district and looted the ballot boxes.
Raula who was critically injured in the attack, has been admitted to a nearby hospital where he is currently undergoing treatment.
Elections were conducted at 22,379 booths in 1,669 panchayats in 70 blocks of Odisha for 200 Zilla Parishad members, 1,669 Sarpanchs, 1,669 panchayat samiti members and 22,379 ward members.
PNN