Polling for the first phase of panchayat elections in Himachal Pradesh began at 7 am on Tuesday across 1,293 panchayats amid a heat wave warning in six of the state’s 12 districts, officials said.
More than 16.5 lakh voters are eligible to cast their votes to elect over 9,000 candidates, including gram panchayat members, pradhans, up-pradhans, panchayat samiti members, and zila parishad members.
The elections are being held through ballot papers and not on party symbols. Voting will continue till 3 pm.
Officials of the state election department said results for gram panchayat members, pradhans and up-pradhans would be declared later in the day, while the results for panchayat samiti and zila parishad seats would be announced on May 31.
The ballot papers have been colour-coded — white for ward members, yellow for up-pradhans, green for pradhans, pink for panchayat samiti members and blue for zila parishad members.
Around 50.89 lakh voters will elect 31,182 public representatives in the three-phase polls, including 3,754 pradhans, 3,754 up-pradhans, 21,654 ward members, 1,769 panchayat samiti members and 251 zila parishad members.
As many as 10,854 candidates have already been elected unopposed. Polling for the second and third phases will be held on May 28 and 30.
Meanwhile, the Shimla Met office has issued a yellow alert for heatwave conditions in Una, Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Kangra, Solan and Sirmaur districts for Tuesday.
