Over 76% turnout till 5 pm in third phase of Rajasthan panchayat polls

Rajasthan recorded a voter turnout of 76.9 per cent till 5 pm during the third phase of the panchayat elections on Wednesday, an official said.

The polling started at 8 am and a large number of voters were still in queues waiting for their turn.

"The polling began at 8 am and the voter turnout till 5 pm was 76.9 per cent. A large number of voters are still in queues at polling stations and will be allowed to vote. The exact voter turnout will be known late in the night," a spokesperson of the state election commission said.

There are 10,865 candidates in the fray for the post of sarpanch and 28,223 are contesting for the posts of panch in the third phase, which is being held in 17,516 wards of 1,700 gram panchayats in 49 panchayat samitis.

A total of 60,23,485 voters are registered across the 49 panchayat samitis of 24 districts.