HYDERABAD: Polling went off smoothly in separate elections to the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh bar councils held on Friday simultaneously for the first time since the bifurcation of the erstwhile united AP state. Advocate voters exercised their franchise at 146 polling stations in AP and 88 in Telangana. Polling held from 10.30 am to 5 pm on the day. As per the information available with bar council secretary N Renuka, about 85 per cent polling was recorded in AP and 80 per cent in Telangana.
In all, there are 27,676 advocates in AP and 20,072 in Telangana who were entitled to vote at their respective places. As many as 107 candidates contested the polls to AP bar council and 86 to Telangana bar council. Counting of votes will take place in Hyderabad. Counting for AP bar council will commence on July 11 and for Telangana bar council from July 23. Votes will be counted on the basis of preferential voting to elect 25 members to each council. The elected members will elect the chairman later.
Justice A Shankar Narayana was the returning officer for Telangana and justice P Keshava Rao for AP. Besides the two bar associations, the ballot boxes of the Hyderabad city civil court, Secunderabad, Nampally and Rangareddy courts were deposited in the office of the bar council on the HC premises. As for the ballot boxes in various districts of the two states, judicial officers are making arrangements to seal the boxes and send them to Hyderabad. Considering the request for additional security to the ballot boxes here, acting chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan passed appropriate orders for the same.