BHUBANESWAR: The second phase panchayat polls on Friday passed off peacefully barring some stray incidents of violence with over 71 per cent voters exercising their franchise.The highlight of the second phase was over 75 per cent polling in the disputed Kotia gram panchayat in Koraput where elections were peacefully conducted. Polling was held for 186 zilla parishad (ZP) zones in 20,436 booths of 1,514 gram panchayats in 68 blocks of the State.
Stating that the State Election Commission (SEC) had taken the violent incidents in the first phase polls seriously, the Commission maintained there was improvement in the situation after Director General of Police (DGP) SK Bansal was asked to ensure incident free elections. Barring some incidents during which voting was held up, the process was peaceful. According to preliminary reports, polling was disrupted in some booths of Jagatsinghpur and Jajpur districts due to law and order situation.
Besides, repolling is also likely in three booths of these districts due to errors in ballot papers. Decision on next course of action will be taken after receiving detailed reports from the district collectors. The SEC maintained that polling was disrupted at booth no-II and III in Kanikapada panchayat of Jajpur after miscreants tore up ballot papers before fleeing with some of them. In Jagatsinghpur, some miscreants created ruckus and ransacked two booths at Patasara panchayat under ZP zone I.
Besides, voting was stopped at Loisinga Thakurpali booth-11 in Balangir district over allegations that the ballot papers given by the presiding officer had only three symbols for six sarpanch candidates. Tension flared up in Ward No 7 in Dahana panchayat under Nandahandi block in Nabarangpur district after it was found that ballot papers had been tampered with. Voting was halted as ballot papers were found pre-marked in favour of a sarpanch candidate.