Brisk polling was registered in Salem since the beginning during the urban local body elections on Saturday. A total of 70.54% polling was recorded in the district.
The elections were conducted to 60 wards under the Salem corporation, 165 wards in six municipalities- Attur, Mettur, Edappadi, Narasingapuram, Idanganasalai, and Tharamangalam and 474 wards in 31 municipalities here.
Four candidates contesting elections to the town panchayats got elected unopposed following scrutiny of nomination papers.
As many as 1,514 polling booths, including 709 booths in corporation limits, were set up for the elections.. As many as 7,267 polling personnel were deployed for election duty. There are 13,56,308 voters in the district.
A total of 276 polling booths were identified as vulnerable in the district and 138 micro-observers were deployed. 138 vulnerable booths were monitored through web-streaming. 1,336 police personnel were deployed to polling booths in the Salem city limits. 2,236 police personnel, including Tamil Nadu Special Police and Home Guards, were deployed at polling booths in rural limits.
Except for a few booths, polling started by 7 a.m in the district. By 9 a.m, 12.97% of votes were polled and the polling percentage increased to 56.37 by 3 p.m. There was steady footfall of voters throughout the day.
M. Ahmed, a voter who exercised his franchise at a polling booth near Mravaneri here, said that the elected representatives should work honestly for the public and be non-corrupt. He added that there hasn’t been a representative for 10 years and the new representatives must not indulge in collecting money from the public for pipeline connections and setting up other amenities.
Polling personnel, who were appointed as reserve, staged a sit-in protest at a college where they were stationed demanding renumeration for poll duty.
DMK cadre staged protests against Superintendent of Police M. Sree Abhinav near Edappadi after police dispersed cadres who gathered at a polling booth here after the arrest of a DMK candidate’s relative, who argued with the SP. The protesters were pacified and dispersed later.
At polling stations with multiple booths, voters faced difficulties identifying their booths. Health volunteers were deployed at polling booths to provide gloves and sanitisers to voters.
At the end of polling, 70.54% polling was recorded in the district. 64.36% polling was recorded in Salem Corporation, 76.61% across six municipalities and 78.49% in town panchayats.
