Staff Reporter
Guwahati: The polling for the first phase of the Panchayat Election 2025 will take place on Friday, May 2, in 14 districts of Upper Assam and Barak Valley. The districts where polling will be held are Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Charaideo, Sivasagar, Majuli, Jorhat, Golaghat, Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Sonitpur, Biswanath, Cachar, Hailakandi and Sribhumi.
Polling personnel, with the required materials, started for their respective polling stations early today. Necessary security arrangements are in place for the first phase of polling that is due to start from 7.30 am.
The Assam State Election Commission (ASEC) had earlier mapped out the vulnerable polling stations, and security personnel have been deployed as per plan.
The polling will take place in 12,916 polling stations, and voting will conclude at 4.30 pm. Voters are required to provide their identity proof with documents like an Electoral Photo-Identity Card (EPIC) or any of the 12 other documents notified by the ASEC.
A total of around 89.60 lakh voters are expected to exercise their franchise on phase one polling day for members of the respective Gaon Panchayat (GP), Anchalik Panchayat (AP) and Zilla Parishad (ZP).
Panchayat Election 2025 will be held to elect 21,920 GP members, 2,192 AP members, and 397 ZP members. This time, no separate voting will be conducted for the presidents of the GPs. The ten elected GP members will select one amongst themselves as the president of the GP. However, in the panchayat elections in 2018 and earlier, direct elections were held for the presidents of the GPs.
The second phase of polling for the two-phase panchayat poll will be conducted on May 7. Counting of ballots for both phases of the poll will be held on May 11.
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