Srinagar, July 10: Thirty-three per cent polling was recorded till around noon today in the elections to the 26-member Kargil Autonomous Hill Development Council and officials said they expected the turnout to exceed 50 per cent when polling closed. District development commissioner K A Khan said 33 per cent of the 85,000 eligible voters had cast their votes by 1300 hours.
The elections are being held for only 17 seats of the hill council with 119 polling stations as six candidates were elected unopposed while there were no nominations for three seats. Khan said the balloting was brisk and was expected to exceed 50 per cent by 1600 hours when the polling for the newly-announced hill council which began at 0800 hrs was slated to close.
Khan said polling was peaceful and there were no reports of any untoward incident so far from any part of the district. Adequate security arrangements have been made to ensure incident-free polling. Government has declared a public holiday today in the district under the Negotiable Instruments Act to allow people to exercise their franchise. Bureau Report