Counting begins for J&K municipal polls

Jammu/Srinagar, Oct 20 (IANS) The counting of votes for the recently concluded municipal polls began in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday.Poll officials said that the counting started at 8 a.m., and all the results would be declared later in the day.For the Srinagar municipal corporation, the counting is being held at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) in Srinagar and for the Jammu municipal corporation it is being held at the Polytechnic Institute near Bikram Chowk.For other districts of the state, counting is being held at the respective district headquarters.Tight security arrangements have been made all across the state.The municipal elections that took place in the state after 13 years, were held in four phases, covering 79 municipal bodies with an electorate of about 17 lakh electors.A total of 3,372 nominations were filed for 1,145 Wards and the voting was held on October 8, 10, 13 and 16.The Valley witnessed very low voter turnout while Jammu and Ladakh recorded heavy polling.Of the 598 wards in Kashmir, 231 candidates were elected unopposed, while there were no candidates in 181 wards.The overall voting percentage for these polls in the state was 35.1 per cent.
--IANS sq/ksk