The counting of votes for Assam’s panchayat polls began Sunday morning, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) recording some early wins as of Sunday evening.
According to state election commission officials, the counting of votes, which began at 8 am Sunday, will continue till Monday.
As of 8 pm, the had won 20 members and its ally Asom Gana Parishad had won 2 members in Anchalik Panchayat constituencies, with no further official results or leads in the remaining seats.
The total seats include 21,920 Gram Panchayat members with 10,883 seats reserved for women; 2,192 Anchalik Panchayat members with 1,124 reserved for women; and 397 Zilla Parishad members with 199 seats reserved for women.
Voting had taken place in two phases on May 2 and May 7 in 27 districts for the first time after the delimitation of constituencies. The counting of votes for both phases is being held simultaneously since 8 am.
In view of stray violence and disruptions during voting, the administration has arranged adequate security measures in all the counting centres to avoid any such situations, an official was quoted as saying by PTI.
“There are thousands of seats in the election. We will try to complete the counting as soon as possible. However, we believe that it is likely to stretch till tomorrow,” another official told PTI.
A total electorate of 1,80,36,682, comprising 90,71,264 men, 89,65,010 women and 408 others, were eligible to exercise their franchise in 25,007 polling stations. According to official data, 74.71 per cent of the eligible voters exercised their franchise during the panchayat polls.
With PTI inputs
