Straight Line News Network
Jammu, Dec 22: All necessary arrangements have been made for counting of votes, which will begin at 9 am in all 20 districts of the union territory.
The State Election Commission said a total of 2,178 candidates, including over 450 women, were in the fray for the 280 DDC seats.
The elections, held in eight phases, began on November 28 and ended on December 19. Elaborate arrangements are in place for to ensure smooth conduct of the process. The results could be accessed online on the commission’s website as well. This is the first elections in Jammu and Kashmir after the Centre scrapped Article 370 and bifurcated it into two Union Territories. The overall voting percentage in all the eight phases was 54.42 per cent. Over 30 lakh votes will be counted on Tuesday.
Seven Kashmir-centric mainstream political parties, including the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party, contested the polls in an alliance under the banner of the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) formed for the restoration of Article 370. The Congress was initially a part of the PAGD but distanced itself from the alliance as the BJP targeted the opposition party for being in league with the ‘Gupkar Gang’. Although the Congress went alone in the last seven phases, it is widely believed that its understanding with the PAGD remains intact.
