Amid tight security, civic elections were held in 11 urban local bodies of south coastal Andhra Pradesh in a peaceful manner to fully comply with the COVID-19 guidelines on Wednesday.
Polling started at 7 am and Nellore and Prakasam districts saw a spurt in the latter days. Officials said that 75.51% voters in Prakasam district exercised their franchise. Addanki saw the highest voting percentage of 83.04% and the lowest in Giddalur at 67.92%. The voting percentage was 81.4% in Chikmurti, 75.57% in Ongole, 75.60% in Chirala, 71.22% in Markapur and 76.25% in Kanigiri.
Thanks to webcasting, District Collector KVN Chakradhar Babu supervised the voting process in four municipalities of Nellore, Attamakur, Sullurpeta, Nayudupeta and Venkatagiri. He said that out of 76,219 voters, 71.06% exercised their franchise in four civic bodies. Naidupeta recorded the highest voting percentage of 76.97 and Sullurpeta recorded the lowest 63.8%. Atamkur recorded 76.65% polling and Venkatagiri 70.7% polling.
The people of Nokalapalam boycotted the elections to protest the merger of localism into the Sukkalpeta civic body.
While traveling to Ongole and parts of Chirala, Superintendent of Police Siddharth Kaushal said that no major untoward incident took place in the pole-bound areas as extensive security arrangements were made. CCTV cameras, drone cameras and body wear cameras were used by police personnel in sensitive polling stations.
Stress in Ongole
Ongole remained tense for some time when a YSRCP candidate went to the polling station in the sixth ward, wearing a party shawl. The police intervened and restored order after engaging in a contentious duel with ruling party cadres.
The police used mild force to disperse the YSR Congress Party and TDP activists in Markpur, who were involved in heated exchanges on disqualified students of a particular college related to the voting of a YSRCP leader in the election.
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