Vote counting on for Gujarat gram panchayat polls

Counting is underway today of votes for the elections held in 8,624 gram panchayats across Gujarat two days back.
According to Gujarat State Election Commission (SEC), the counting process is being held at 252 places across the state with the help of more than 17,300 polling staff.
As ballot papers were used instead of EVMs during polling, the staff will be required to count each vote manually, said a release by the SEC.
In the polling held in 8,624 village panchayats across the state for the election of members as well as sarpanchs on December 27, about 80.12 per cent voter turnout was recorded.

This time, around 1.20 lakh candidates were in fray for 53,116 wards across the state, whereas 26,800 candidates contested on 8,527 seats of sarpanchs.
Over 44,000 ballot boxes were used across more than 22,000 polling booths in state. Total registered voters for the polls stood at over 1.65 crore, including 79.6 lakh women.

Though EVMs were not used, voters were given the choice of NOTA (None Of The Above) in the ballot papers.
Due to some procedural irregularities and misprints of some ballot papers during polling, the SEC held re-election yesterday on six different seats, including four seats for members and two seats of sarpanch.

The gram panchayat polls are not fought on party symbols, as candidates need to fight on their personal capacity. In gram panchayat polls, each voter is required to cast two votes, one to elect sarpanch and another for electing panchayat member for his ward.