Over 20,000 polling staff mobilised for final phase of Assembly elections in J&K

Over 20,000 polling staff mobilized for final phase of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections on September 30, 2024.

Over 20,000 polling staff have been mobilised on Monday (September 30, 2024) across seven districts of Jammu and Kashmir on the eve of the third and final phase of Assembly elections, which will decide the electoral fate of 415 candidates including two former deputy chief ministers Tara Chand and Muzaffar Beig, officials said.

The highlight of the voting will be participation of west Pakistani refugees, Valmiki Samaj and Gorkha community members who got the voting rights in Assembly, urban local bodies and panchayat elections after the abrogation of Article 370. They have earlier voted in block development council and district development council polls in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

Over 39.18 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise at 5,060 polling stations in this crucial phase, covering 40 Assembly segments in Jammu, Udhampur, Samba and Kathua in the Jammu region and Baramulla, Bandipora and Kupwara in north Kashmir, on October 1.

Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Jammu zone, Anand Jain, said adequate security arrangements have been put in place in the poll-bound areas to ensure "terror-free and peaceful" polling.

Amid tight security arrangements, thousands of election staff along with poll material left their respective district headquarters this morning to take positions at their designated polling stations by this evening.

The voter turnout was robust in the earlier phases, with 61.38% participation recorded in the first phase on September 18 and 57.31% in the second phase on September 26.

This is the first Assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution in August 2019, with the results set to be announced on October 8.