Vijayawada: Arrangements underway for first phase of polling

Vijayawada: Arrangements are underway for the first phase of polling to be held in Vijayawada revenue division for the 234 panchayats on February 9. Scrutiny of nominations was completed by the election authorities for the first phase. Women voters outnumber men in Krishna district for the panchayat polls to be held in four phases beginning on February 9. Total number of voters in Krishna district are 21,46,481. Among them men are 10,60,852 and women 10,85,514, according to State Election Commission (SEC) on Tuesday.

In the first phase, elections will be held for 234 panchayats in 14 mandals of the Vijayawada revenue division on February 9. The Election Commission has set up 2,642 polling centres for the 2,502 panchayat wards in 14 mandals of the district. A total of 1,379 nominations were filed for the sarpanch posts and 7,889 nominations filed for the ward members posts. After the scrutiny, the officials have shortlisted 1,303 nominations for the sarpanch posts and 7,703 nominations for the ward members posts.

SEC has arranged 29,27,000 ballot papers for the sarpanch posts and the same number of ballot papers for the ward member elections. A total of 10,367 ballot boxes are kept ready including 4,229 small ballot boxes, 90 medium boxes and 6,048 big ballot boxes.

The second phase of polling will be held in Gudivada revenue division on February 13. Voting will be held for 211 panchayats in 9 mandals and 1,988 polling centres are arranged in the division.

Later, polling will be held in Machilipatnam and Nuzvid revenue divisions on February 17 and 21 respectively. Polling will be held in 12 mandals of Machilipatnam revenue division and 14 mandals of Nuzvid revenue division in the last and fourth phase of elections.

The officials are conducting training classes and instructions to be followed during the polling process.