MPTC, ZPTC polls close with 58.55% turnout by 3 pm; four flood-hit mandals vote on Friday, counting on Saturday from 8 am

Voting in the MPTC, ZPTC elections across rural Andhra Pradesh ended at 5 pm on Thursday, 5 November, and the ballot boxes are now locked in strong rooms ahead of counting on Saturday, 7 November. State Election Commission officials put turnout at 58.55% by 3 pm. The provisional estimate at the close of polling is between 65% and 68%; the Commission has yet to release a consolidated final figure.

Voting was slow in the morning, with rain in several districts. Turnout was 21.12% at 11 am and 30.50% at 1 pm before a heavy afternoon rush, and voters still in the queue at 5 pm were allowed to cast their ballots. District officials recorded 82.51% in Visakhapatnam district, where four ZPTC and 53 MPTC seats were in the fray, and 57.34% in Srikakulam district.

The contest covered 582 of the 659 ZPTC seats and 7,767 of the 9,821 MPTC seats, as 77 ZPTC and 2,051 MPTC members had already been elected unopposed. In all, 2,169 candidates are in the race for ZPTC seats and 18,843 for MPTC seats, before an electorate of about 2.61 crore rural voters.

Four mandals vote on Friday

There was no voting on Thursday in Polavaram, Jeelugumilli, Buttayagudem and Velerupadu mandals, where floods after Cyclone Murasu’s heavy rain had damaged the roads. Eluru Collector K. Vetriselvi said polling for 4 ZPTC and 42 MPTC seats there will be held on Friday, 6 November, at 140 polling stations serving 1,30,996 voters. The Commission’s revised schedule also keeps Friday for any repoll it orders elsewhere.

Polling passed off largely peacefully, though police had to step in at several places. Rival groups clashed in a few villages of Kadapa, Kurnool, Anantapur and Palnadu districts. A petrol bomb was thrown at Yerripalle in Pulivendula mandal, and several people were hurt in stone-throwing at Gummanur in Kurnool district. State Election Commissioner Anil Chandra Punetha, who toured booths in NTR and Krishna districts, said voting there went on without trouble and that the strong rooms are under electronic surveillance.

Counting from 8 am on Saturday

Counting will begin at 8 am on Saturday, 7 November, at 365 centres statewide, with 9,062 counting tables and 28,892 staff on duty and 40,679 police personnel guarding the centres. Under the Commission’s schedule, returning officers will declare each result at the counting centre as soon as that count is complete.