BHUBANESWAR: The final phase of the three-tier panchayat polls will be held in 48 blocks of 25 districts in the State including Swabhiman Anchal, the erstwhile cut-off region of Naxal-hit Malkangiri district, on Thursday.
Voting will take place in 13,514 booths of 131 zilla parishad (ZP) zones and 974 gram panchayats (GPs). Keeping in view incidents of poll-related violence in the previous four phases, adequate security arrangements have been made across the State for free and fair polling.
As many as 258 platoons of police, 1,148 mobile patrolling parties along district police personnel have been deployed in the poll-bound districts for smooth conduct of the fifth phase elections.
In Malkangiri’s Swabhiman Anchal, a part of Chitrakonda block, where polling will be held after a gap of 10 years, BSF and police personnel have been deployed at different locations. Focus is on 81 sensitive and 60 hyper-sensitive booths identified in the region to avert any untoward incident.
Apart from polling booths, adequate security arrangements have also been made at strong rooms across the State with CCTV coverage to ensure round-the-clock safety of ballot boxes.
“Security and CCTV arrangements are also being made at block headquarters for smooth counting of votes,” officials said. The election will be conducted as per State Election Commission (SEC) guidelines and Covid protocols. SEC sources said polling is already over in 78,389 booths out of the total 91,003 in the previous four phases. The process has been completed in Jharsuguda, Boudh, Deogarh, Berhampur, Angul districts.
SEC officials said a high voter turnout of 79 per cent was recorded in the fourth phase on February 22. Sonepur district registered the highest 86.51 per cent turnout, followed by 84.87 per cent in Bargarh. Ganjam district recorded the lowest turnout of 65.2 per cent. Barring stray incidents of violence, polling has been by and large peaceful in the previous phases.
Police have so far arrested 147 persons including 103 from Jajpur district, 24 from Puri, 10 from Dhenkanal, seven from Jagatsinghpur and three from Kendrapara districts in connection with violence and disruptions during the last four phases.