Bhubaneswar: Campaigning for the first phase of the panchayat election ended Monday evening with polling parties having started departing for their respective booths.
After a marathon campaigning for party candidates, leaders of all three major political parties, BJD, BJP and Congress hoped their candidates would get votes.
In the first phase, 200 Zilla Parishad zones in 71 blocks in all 30 districts will go to vote. Voting will be carried out at 22,379 wards and 1,669 panchayats across the state.
As many as 67.51 lakh voters will exercise their franchise in this phase.
Polling officials have been sent to 11 districts Monday while officials will move to other 19 districts Tuesday, said State Election Commission (SEC) secretary RN Sahu.
Meanwhile, the SEC has issued a clarification for the validation of votes polled during the upcoming panchayat elections.
The SEC’s clarification comes in the wake of several queries received by the commission regarding the validity of a ballot paper when a voter records his vote for a candidate in the prefold portion and again gives a vote on a symbol not allotted to any contesting candidate, the first vote will not be rejected.
Panchayat Election Rules say a ballot paper is liable for rejection if votes are recorded in favour of more than one candidate in the fray for the election.
“In the instant case, even if the voter has recorded his vote against one contesting candidate and another against a symbol which was not allotted to any candidate, the intention of the voter is clear and it will not be rejected,” said Sahu.
The collectors have been asked to implement the above instructions while counting of votes during in the panchayat election, 2022.
PNN
