The panchayat bypolls were held along with the maiden District Development Council (DDC) elections on Saturday. Enthusiasm among the voters was witnessed in the first democratic exercise in the Union Territory post the abrogation of Article 370 in August last year. About 52 percent polling was registered in the first phase of the DDC elections.
“A total of 85,363 electors exercised their franchise in the elections, which began at 7 am and culminated at 2 pm, against 1,43,592 electors for both Sarpanch and Panch vacant constituencies in different blocks of J&K,” Sharma said in a statement in the evening.
In the vacant panch constituencies in the Jammu division, Ramban district recorded the highest voter turnout of 77.77 per cent, followed by Doda with 77.73 percent. In Kashmir division, Shopian witnessed 86.74 per cent, followed by Budgam with 72.79 per cent polling.
Similarly, in the sarpanch vacant constituencies Ganderbal witnessed 71.04 per cent voter turnout while Jammu district recorded the highest turnout of 77.24 per cent, Sharma said.
He said the DDC and panchayat elections would play a decisive and catalytic role towards the development of the people at the grassroots level.
Sharma appreciated every stakeholder for their tireless efforts towards the successful conduct of the first phase of the eight-phased polling process.
In the first phase of the panchayat by-elections, 1,131 candidates were in fray including 852 in panch constituencies for 368 vacancies and 279 for 94 vacancies for sarpanch constituencies, he said.