Over 65% turnout in Ladakh hill panel polls

Ladakh Oct 22 (PTK):Voting for powerful Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) ended peacefully on Thursday with over 65 percent voter turnout, an official said.

“The voting for 26 seats of LAHDC started at 8 a.m. and ended at 5 p.m. An overall voting percentage of 65.07 percent was recorded,” an official of the district administration said

“The percentage figures are likely to go up as final counts from far off polling stations are yet to be finalized,” he added.

There are 30 seats in the LAHDC out of which 26 are filled by directly election while four are nominated.

The majority of seats in the outgoing LAHDC were held by the Congress and BJP 94 Candidates from Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party, Aam Admi party and independents are in the fray.

As many as 89,776 electorate, including 45,025 women voters, sealed the fate of 94 candidates

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is also trying its luck for the first time in the region, while none of the regional parties, including the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has joined the electoral battle.

We saw a 65.07% voter turnout. We were apprehensive of enforcing COVID-19 norms but it went fine. There were some minor EVM battery glitches due to the cold but they were resolved Said Sachin Kumar, DC, Leh

“The campaigning for the LAHDC Leh polls ended peacefully at 4 pm today (Tuesday). There were about four complaints of violation of model code of conduct which were not of grave nature but still appropriate action as per law was taken,” he said (PTK)