Polls peaceful in Srikakulam
District Collector J Nivas and SP Amith Bardhar interacting with officers at a polling station in Etcherla mandal
Srikakulam: The fourth and final phase of gram panchayat elections went off peacefully in Srikakulam district on Sunday. The elections held for 259 gram panchayats in 9 mandals and in total 661 candidates contested for sarpanch posts. Elections held for 1,915 ward members and 4,202 candidates are infray. In total 4,863 candidates are in contest for both sarpanch and ward members' posts. Till end of polling hours, in total 83.81 per cent of votes polled in all nine mandals. The highest percentage of votes polled in Ranastalam mandal as 88.86 per cent and in G Sigadam mandal 86.89 per cent of votes polled. In Etcherla mandal 85.08 per cent of votes polled, followed by 84.75 in Jalumuru mandal. After conclusion of polling, the counting of votes started in all gram panchayats. With this entire polling process was concluded with incident-free in all nine mandals.