Mail News Service NNN
Imphal, Sep 12 : More than six lakhs of people will cast their franchise in the panchayat election being started from seven a.m. to four p.m. tomorrow.
231 candidates will contest for 59 Zilla parishad seats and for 160 seats of Pradhan 595 candidates are in the fray and 3798 candidates will also contest for 1471 panchayat members.
It may be mentioned here that one candidate for ZP, one candidate for Pradhan and 97 members were already elected uncontested.
Polling officials and personnel left the district HQ for their destination today.
Altogether 651817 people will cast their votes tomorrow.
Four districts of Manipur will go to poll on Thursday amidst tight security arrangement to elect 60 Zilla Parishad members, 161 Pradhans and 1,514 Gram Panchayat members, and no stone will be left unturned to ensure a free and fair Panchayat elections.
However, a 12-hour bandh will be enforced in the four hill districts from 5 am by Committee for the Protection of Tribal Areas, Manipur (COPTAM) in protest against the inclusion of some tribal villages in the Panchayat poll.
Meanwhile, amidst tight security, voting will take place in four valley districts of Imphal East including ADC Jiribam, Imphal West, Thoubal and Bishnupur.
Voting will begin from 7 a.m. and close at 4 p.m.
In the Panchayat polls, 231 candidates are contesting for the 60 Zilla Parishad seats, 595 candidates for 161 seats for Pradhans and 3794 candidates are in the fray for 1514 seats of Gram Panchayat members.
Adequate state forces including personnel from state police, Manipur Rifles, India Reserve Battalion, Home Guards and Village Defence Force have been deployed in all the polling stations spread across the four districts.
The Government this time has opted conventional ballot papers to put in service taking the place of Electronic Voting Mchines (EVMs) in the Panchayat Polls.
In all, 1516 polling booths have been opened for the voting spread across the four districts for tomorrow’s polls.
In Imphal Eas ADC Jiribam, 10 polling stations have been officially declared hyper- sensitive 19 sensitive and 23 as normal out of 57 polling stations, while in respect of Sawombung, Porompat and Keirao Bitra of the district having 433 polling stations, 77 has been declared hyper-sensitive, 218 as sensitive and 138 as normal.
Imphal West’s Lamshang, Patsoi and Wangoi have a total number of 327 polling stations out of which eight has been declared hyper-sensentive, 48 as sensitive and 271 as normal.
For Thoubal district,s Lilong, Thoubal and Kakching have 480 polling booths and all the booths have been declared hyper-sensetive.
Bishnupur district has 219 polling stations in Nambol, Bishnupur and Moirang.
Counting of votes fo the Panchayat polls will take place on September 17.
Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/panchayat-elections-today/
