At the end of polling for the second phase of local body elections on Monday, Coimbatore district recorded 75.69% polling across the seven panchayat unions.
The seven panchayat unions that went to polls were: Sulur, Sulthanpet, Sarcarsamakulam, Annur, Thondamuthur, Periyanaickenpalayam and Karamadai. There were 415 polling stations and 878 polling booths in all the seven panchayat unions, election officials said. A total of 4,017 candidates were in the fray for 1,214 posts including ward member of village panchayat, president of village panchayat, ward member of panchayat unions, and ward member of district panchayat.
A total of 4,16,976 votes out of 5,50,900 were polled across the seven panchayat unions. Female voters had a clear majority as 2,11,026 women cast their ballot compared to 2,05,946 men voters.
Out of total 45 third gender voters, there were two votes at Periyanaickenpalayam Panchayat Union and one vote each at Karamadai and Sulthanpet.
Voters young and old thronged the polling stations from 7 a.m to exercise their franchise. P. Senniammal (90) voted at the polling station in Kurudampalayam Village Panchayat of Periyanaickenpalayam Panchayat Union.
At the polling station in Ponnegoundenpudur Village Panchayat in Annur Panchayat Union, three generations of a family – V. Muthan (92), his daughter M. Angammal (53) and grandson C. Madan (28) cast their vote. “I prefer the electronic voting machines to the ballot boxes,” Mr. Muthan said. Mr. Madan suggested that electronic voting machines could also be used in local body elections.
Young voters who had previously voted either in the General Elections in April or in the 2016 Assembly elections voted in their first local body elections. “I found the electronic voting machines easier,” said R. Gokilamani( 25), who came to vote at the polling station at Naickenpalayam Village Panchayat in Periyanaickenpalayam Panchayat Union.
D.E. Navya (19), R. Mohanpriya(22) and P. Sindhu Pargavi(19), who voted at the polling station in Ponnegoundenpudur Village Panchayat in Annur Panchayat Union, said that they previously voted in the General Elections earlier this year and this was their first local body elections.
In Sulur Panchayat Union, three officials from the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad combed the entire polling station in Chinniyampalayam Village Panchayat. “Chinniyampalayam comes under the City Police limits,” an official said, noting that the polling station had six polling booths. No suspicious items were detected, the officials said.
Election officials said there were reports of some polling stations in Sulur Panchayat Union facing a shortage of polling personnel, following which the reserve polling personnel were deputed to those polling stations. No major untoward incidents were reported in any of the panchayat unions in Coimbatore district, according to officials.
