JAMMU: Thirty-seven District Development Council (DDC) constituencies will witness polling in the fifth phase of ongoing polls today. Besides, polling will be conducted in 58 Sarpanch and 218 Panch seats as well.
Addressing a press conference here, State Election Commissioner, KK Sharma said that voting will take place in 37 DDC constituencies including 17 from Kashmir division and 20 from Jammu division.
He said that there are 155 candidates in fray including 30 females in Kashmir. In Jammu division, there are 144 candidates including 40 females in fray for 20 DDC constituencies.
Sharma added that there are 125 Sarpanch vacancies which have been notified in the 5th phase and out of these 30 have been elected unopposed.
Similarly, he said that out of the total 1412 Panch vacancies notified in this phase, 218 constituencies will go for elections with 527 candidates including 137 female candidates.
He said 827519 electors are eligible to cast their votes including 433285 males and 394234 females. Among these 439529 are from Jammu division and 387990 are from Kashmir division.
He said that 2104 polling stations have been set up across J&K for this phase, of which 914 are in Jammu division and 1190 are in Kashmir division. Of 2104 polling stations, 1193 are Hyper sensitive, 472 are sensitive and 439 have been categorized as normal.
The SEC said that all the requisite arrangements for this phase are in place including manpower, election material and security arrangements in all poll going areas.
In view of Covid-19 pandemic, adequate arrangements have been put in place to ensure safety of all stakeholders including the voters. Sanitizers, thermal scanners and face masks have been arranged at the polling stations to ensure that SOPs issued by the concerned authorities, including wearing face masks and maintaining social distancing are strictly followed at the polling stations.

KR Desk