Jammu, Dec 9 A total of 37 District Development Council (DDC) constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir will vote in the fifth phase of the ongoing polls on Thursday.
Voting will also be conducted in 58 vacant Sarpanch and 218 vacant Panch seats.
Addressing a press conference, State Election Commissioner K.K. Sharma said that of 37 DDC constituencies, 17 are in the Kashmir division and 20 in the Jammu division.
In the 17 DDC constituencies of Kashmir, there are 155 candidates in fray, including 30 women, while in Jammu division, 144 candidates, including 40 women, are contesting.
Sharma also said said there are 125 Sarpanch vacancies which have been notified in the 5th phase and out of these 30 have been elected unopposed. There shall be a contest in 58 constituencies and 175 candidates, including 51 women, are in fray.
Similarly, out of the total 1,412 Panch vacancies notified in this phase, 218 constituencies will go for elections with 527 candidates including 137 female candidates in the fray.
In the 5th phase, he said, 827,519 electors are eligible to cast their votes and comprise 433,285 male and 394,234 female voters. Among these, 439,529 are from the Jammu division and 387,990 from the Kashmir division.
He said that a total of 2,104 polling stations have been setup across the UT for this phase, of which, 914 are in Jammu division and 1,190 are in Kashmir division. Of the total polling stations, 1,193 are hyper sensitive, 472 are sensitive and 439 have been categorised as normal. Polling will be held from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The SEC said that out of these 2104 polling stations, polling for the Sarpanch vacancies will be held on 271 polling stations and for Panch vacancies on 229 polling stations.
He said that all the requisite arrangements for this phase are in place including manpower, election material and security arrangements in all poll-bound areas.
In view of Covid-19 pandemic, adequate arrangements have been put in place to ensure safety of all stake holders including the voters. Sanitisers, thermal scanners and face masks have been arranged at the polling stations to ensure that SOPs issued by the authorities are strictly followed.
( With inputs from IANS )
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