Overall turnout in local bodies where elections were conducted in the first phase in Perambalur district exceeded 80 per cent on Monday.
Elections were conducted for Perambalur Municipality; Perambalur and Veppanthattai panchayat unions; and Kurumbalur, Arumbavur and Pullambadi town panchayats .
District Collector Darez Ahamed stood in queue for about an hour to cast his vote at the general booth in Panchayat Union Elementary School in the 12th ward in Perambalur town. The pace of voting that was at just 6.52 per cent at 9.00 a.m. gathered momentum as the day progressed. Till noon, turnout of voters in panchayat unions was much lesser when compared to town panchayats and the municipality.
No untoward incident was reported though 30 out of 358 booths in the first phase of polling were identified as sensitive. For the first phase as well and the second phase of polling on October 19 in the Labbaikudikadu town panchayat, and Alathur and Veppur Panchayat Unions, the district administration had deployed 500 police personnel, 120 home guards, 30 ex-servicemen, 13 fire and rescue service personnel, four forest department personnel, 40 NCC cadets and 140 NSS volunteers for providing security cover to the polling booths.
Four ward members in Labbaikudikadu town panchayat, and one ward member each in Kurumbalur and Pullambadi town panchayats have already been elected unopposed. Likewise, the panchayat presidents of Kalpadi in Perambalur panchayat union and Keelapuliyur in Veppur panchayat union as well as 189 ward members in all panchcyats put together have been elected unopposed. In all, there are 3,751 contestants for 1,126 posts in all the local bodies. The district administration said it had completed distribution of booth slips to 93 per cent of the electorate as on October 12. The 3,66,188 voters in the district constitute 1,80,760 men, 1,85,416 women and 12 transgenders. In the first phase, 1,94,603 voters were expected to exercise their franchise
