JAMMU, DECEMBER 09: A total of 37 District Development Council (DDC) constituencies will witness polling in the fifth phase of ongoing polls besides the voting shall be conducted in 58 vacant Sarpanch and 218 vacant Panch seats on December 10, 2020. Addressing a press conference here, State Election Commissioner, KK Sharma, stated that, of 37 DDC constituencies, voting will be conducted on 17 from Kashmir division and 20 from Jammu division. The SEC while giving a breakup of the constituencies going to polls tomorrow said that in this phase, out of the total 280 DDC constituencies in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir, 37 are going to poll tomorrow. He said that against the 17 DDC constituencies of Kashmir division going to poll, there are 155 candidates in fray including 30 females. In Jammu division, there are 144 candidates in fray for the 20 DDC constituencies in this phase, including 40 females. SEC further said there are 125 Sarpanch vacancies which have been notified in the 5th phase and out of these 30 have been elected unopposed. There shall be contest in 58 constituencies and 175 candidates including 51 females are in fray. Similarly, he said that out of the total 1412 Panch vacancies notified in this phase, 218 constituencies will go for elections with 527 candidates including 137 female candidates. In the 5th phase, he said, 827519 electors are eligible to cast their votes including 433285 males and 394234 females. Among these 439529 are from Jammu division and 387990 are from Kashmir division. He said that 2104 polling stations have been setup across the UT for this phase, of which, 914 are in Jammu division and 1190 are in Kashmir division. Of 2104 polling stations, 1193 are Hyper sensitive, 472 are sensitive and 439 have been categorized as normal. SEC said that out of these 2104 polling stations, there shall be poll for Sarpanch vacancies on 271 polling stations and Panch vacancies on 229 polling stations, along with the DDC polls. Polling for this phase shall be conducted on 10th December, 2020 from 7am to 2 pm, he added. SEC said that all the requisite arrangements for this phase are in place including manpower, election material and security arrangements in all poll going areas. In view of Covid-19 pandemic, adequate arrangements have been put in place to ensure safety of all stake holders including the voters. Sanitizers, thermal scanners and face masks have been arranged at the polling stations to ensure that SOPs issued by the concerned authorities, including wearing face masks and maintaining social distancing are strictly followed at the polling stations
