Peaceful Turnout Marked by High Voter Participation in ASR and Visakhapatnam Rural Elections

Local body elections for Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies and Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies passed off peacefully on Thursday across the Alluri Sitharama Raju and Visakhapatnam districts.

ASR District

Voting started at 7 a.m. in the Alluri Sitharama Raju district for 11 ZPTC and 172 MPTC seats. Provisional figures put the final turnout at 59.98 percent across the 11 mandals. Participation grew through the day, moving from 12.3 percent at 9 a.m. to 45.4 percent at 1 p.m. Collector T. Nishanthi checked the polling stations and monitored live updates from the command control room at the Collectorate. Ballot boxes were safely brought to the reception centre at the Government Degree College in Paderu.

Visakhapatnam District

In Visakhapatnam, voters cast their ballots for four ZPTC and 53 MPTC seats across Anandapuram, Bheemunipatnam, Padmanabham, and Pendurthi mandals. Final figures show an 82.51 percent voter turnout, with 1,34,000 out of 1,62,407 electors exercising their franchise. Women cast 69,076 votes in total. Anandapuram recorded the highest turnout at 84.76 percent, followed by Padmanabham at 81.89 percent, Pendurthi at 81.40 percent, and Bheemunipatnam at 80.97 percent. District Election Officer M. Abhishikth Kishore visited polling booths, while Joint Collector Gobbilla Vidyadhari and general observer S.S. Shobhika monitored operations from the control room. Ballot boxes are now stored in strong rooms, and vote counting will start at 8 a.m. on November 7.

Context

The peaceful conclusion of rural body polls in the ASR district marks a major shift from past elections in the agency tracts, which often faced security challenges and boycott calls. Enhanced security and preventive policing along the border helped create a safe environment for voters this time.