By-elections in various urban and rural local bodies, including two wards of Tiruchirappalli City Corporation, was held peacefully on Thursday.
In Tiruchi city, brisk polling was witnessed since early morning. Long queues were seen in most polling booths in both ward 15 and ward 32 to exercise their franchise. However, the enthusiasm among the voters was less in ward 32.
As per official figures, 68.42 per cent of votes were polled in ward 15. Out of 12,443, 8,513 voters exercised their democratic right. The response was the same in most of the 13 polling booths.
In ward 32, 57.60 per cent was registered at 5 p.m. Out of 4,861 voters; just 2,800 voters cast their votes. It was reasoned that some of the voters, who were employers of Southern Railway, might have shifted their homes on transfer.
V.P.Thandapani, Corporation Commissioner, who is the Returning Officer for the two wards, said no untoward incident was reported in any part of the wards that went to poll. Electronic voting machines had been sealed in front of the agents and transported to strong rooms.
By-elections were held for 22 vacant posts including 17 village panchayat wards, two village panchayat presidents, one panchayat union member, and two town panchayat wards. Seventy candidates are in the fray for the by-elections.
Sixty-five per cent polling was registered for the rural local bodies in the district while the two town panchayat wards recorded brisk polling at 76 per cent. In all, 24,099 out of the 36,906 voters had cast their votes in the by-polls in the district.
Fifty-nine candidates had been declared elected unopposed for various rural and urban local of the district. This included 55 village panchayat ward members, one village panchayat president, one panchayat union ward member and two town panchayat ward members.
