VIJAYAWADA: The second phase of gram panchayat elections in Andhra Pradesh will be held on Saturday to elect 2,786 sarpanches and 20,817 ward members. There are 7,507 sarpanch candidates and 44,876 ward members in fray, as 539 sarpanches and 12,604 ward members have been elected unanimously.
State Election Commission has set up 29,304 polling stations for voters to exercise their franchise. Of them, 5,480 are considered sensitive and 4,181 hypersensitive. Authorities have arranged 18,387 big, 8,351 medium and 24,034 small ballot boxes at the various polling booths.
As part of anti-Covid-19 measures, authorities have arranged for face masks, hand sanitisers, thermal scanners and hand gloves at all polling stations. PPE kits have also been arranged for voters infected with Coronavirus to wear before exercising their franchise. Virus-affected people will be allowed to vote just one hour before closure of polling for the day.
Police are keeping a close tab for avoiding any…