The first phase of the gram panchayat elections in 14 mandals of the Vijayawada revenue division saw 85.06% voter turnout on Tuesday.
The GP election was conducted in 211 gram panchayats in 14 mandals including Chandarlapadu, G. Konduru, Ibrahimpatnam, Jaggaiahpeta, Kanchikacherla, Kankipadu, Mylavaram, Nandigama, Penamaluru, Penugranchipolu, Thotlavalluru, Vatsavai, Veerullapad and Vijayawada Rural.
The polling was conducted in a total of 2,593 polling stations where a total of 6,01,784 voters were polled.
Vijayawada Rural witnessed the lowest voter turnout of 76.45% while Nandigama witnessed the highest turnout of 89.38%.
After polling came to end, officials began counting and as of 8 p.m., results of elections for sarpanches in four panchayats and that of ward members in 16 panchayats were declared.
Elections were conducted to elect 211 Sarpanches and 2,110 ward members.
Over 6,000 polling staff were deployed and 320 micro observers, 87 route officers and 43 zonal officers led by the Collector A.Md. Imtiaz oversaw the polling activity.
The counting process was being observed by the district administration through web casting. Polling staff were given a compensatory leave.
