Counting of votes polled in the elections to 670 wards in 136 gram panchayats of Dharwad district which began early morning on Wednesday continued late into the night without any reports of technical issues. At the time of going to print, results of two third of the total seats had been announced.
Counting began at the right time and sailed off smoothly without any hassles. Despite the COVID-19 advisory, candidates came to the counting centres in groups and the counting centres were jam-packed mainly because of the good number of candidates in each ward.
At all the taluk centres, elaborate arrangements had been made at the counting centres and necessary precautions as per COVID-19 advisory had been taken. Even as candidates and their agents were allowed inside the counting centres, a large number of supporters and well-wishers gathered around the centres.
Deputy Commissioner of Dharwad Nitesh Patil, Police Commissioner Labhu Ram, Superintendent of Police P. Krishnakant visited various counting centres to oversee the process. Dharwad district witnessed an instance of a winner being decided by lottery. In Ward No 5 of Sulla Gram Panchayat Manjunath Naikar and Bhimappa Shiragannavar had secured 209 votes each. The winner was decided through lottery and Manjunath Naikar was elected.
EC statement
According to officials in the State Election Commission, data on victories and others would be released only after the counting is completed.
The final result of 5,728 gram panchayats that went to the polls on December 22 and December 27, will be out by Thursday morning. A note said that results for 54,041 seats had been declared since counting commenced on Wednesday morning. The results of 36,781 seats would be available by the early hours of Thursday.
Barring Bidar district where the State Election Commission had deployed Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), the rest of the State had seen ballot paper being used. In Bidar, counting had been completed in less than six hours.
