Elections to the Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (MPTC) and Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTC), held in the district on Thursday, witnessed a voter turnout of 65.25% as of 5 p.m.
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The elections were held in 39 mandals of 10 Assembly constituencies in the district.
While polling was held from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. in 28 mandals in the rural areas, it was held only from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. in 11 mandals of Paderu revenue division in view of the Maoist threat.
The Pendurthi Assembly constituency, which has three mandals of Pendurthi, Parawada and Sabbavaram, saw the highest average turnout of 79.70%, followed by Bheemunipatnam Assembly constituency, which has Anandapuram, Bheemili and Padmanabham mandals, at 75.01%.
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The average polling percentage of Anakapalle and Chodavaram Assembly constituencies was 62.81% and 68.16% respectively. The Narsipatnam Assembly constituency reported 73.30% turnout while Payakaraopeta Assembly constituency recorded 64.35% polling.
Pendurthi mandal recorded 84.07% voting as of 5 p.m. — the highest among the 39 mandals.
Voting dull in Agency
The Paderu Assembly constituency, comprising five mandals of Chintapalli, G.K. Veedhi, G. Madugula, Koyyuru and Paderu, reported the least polling percentage of 48.48% in the district. The Araku Assembly constituency reported 57.90% turnout.
The Maoist hotbed of G.K Veedhi reported a turnout of 40.04%, which is the least not only in the Agency but also in the entire district.
District Collector V. Vinay Chand said that the MPTC/ZPTC elections were held peacefully without any irregularities in the district. He inspected a polling booth at Sabbavaram area on Thursday morning and interacted with voters and enquired about the polling arrangements at the centre.
“To facilitate easy voting, the administration ensured that polling centres are located as close to voters’ homes as possible. Despite hot weather, a large number of elderly people and physically-challenged persons came forward to cast their vote. All COVID-19 precautions were taken at the centres,” Mr. Vinay Chand told reporters. Later, he enquired with polling staff about the counting arrangements.
The MPTC/ZPTC polls were last held in the district in 2013-14. There are 651 MPTC seats and after three unanimous elections, polls were held for 612 seats. Similarly, elections were held for 37 ZPTC seats out of 39.
The district administration arranged around 2,100 polling stations and 12,000 staff were deployed on poll duty.
Out of the 2,100 polling stations, 718 were identified as sensitive polling stations and 736 as hyper-sensitive stations. In some hyper-sensitive Maoist-infested areas, the polling booths were moved to safer spots.
There are 17.84 lakh voters in the district with 8.76 lakh men and 9.08 lakh women.