Jammu and Kashmir will witness polling for the eighth and last phase of District Development Council (DDC) and panchayat by-polls on Saturday.
“A total of 28 DDC constituencies will go to polls including 13 seats from Kashmir division and 15 from Jammu division with 168 candidates contesting the last leg of the elections,” State Election Commissioner (SEC), KK Sharma, told reporters.
He said that in Kashmir division there are 83 candidates in fray including 31 females. In Jammu division, there are 85 candidates in fray for the 15 DDC constituencies in this phase, including 15 females.
Sharma said 630443 electors (327168 male and 303275 female voters) are going to elect their representatives in all 28 DDC constituencies on Saturday. “A total of 1703 polling stations have been designated with 1028 in Kashmir division and 675 in Jammu division,” he said.
The SEC further informed that of 165 Sarpanch vacancies notified in the eighth phase, 43 have been elected unopposed. “There will be a contest in 84 constituencies and 249 candidates including 52 females are in fray,” he said.
Out of the total 1457 Panch vacancies notified for this phase, he said 496 were elected unopposed. In 285 constituencies, he said 596 candidates are contesting the elections including 156 female candidates.
The SEC said that all the requisite arrangements for this phase are in place including manpower, election material and security arrangements in all poll going areas.
He added that the poll timing would be 7 am to 2 pm and counting shall be done on December 22, 2020 along with the rest of the DDC constituencies as per the schedule notified by the Election Authority.
Referring to the arrangements in place in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, the SEC said adequate arrangements have been put in place to ensure safety of all stakeholders including the voters coming to vote at the polling stations.”Sanitizers, thermal scanners and face masks have been arranged at the polling stations to ensure that SOPs issued by the concerned authorities, including wearing face masks and maintaining social distancing, are strictly followed at the polling stations”, he added.
Sharma said that extraordinary security arrangements have been put in place for smooth, free and fair polling.