SDF sweeps rural polls

TT; Gangtok, Nov. 5: The Sikkim Democratic Front has won 328 gram panchayat wards and 65 zilla panchayat wards, today’s rural poll counting has shown. The ruling party had already won 556 gram panchayat wards and 38 zilla panchayat wards uncontested. Today’s counting takes SDF’s tally to 884 out of the 988 gram panchayat wards — election to one was not held, bringing the seats down to 987. In the zilla panchayat tier, the SDF’s tally is 103 out of the total 108 seats, making the SDF the clear winner. Independents have won 90 gram panchayat wards and five zilla panchayat seats.

 In 13 gram panchayat seats the results have been withheld, the reason being cited is error in counting. How many of the 176 gram panchayats the SDF will form be clear by tomorrow. All 13 seats where the counting error was reported are in the East district. East district collector D. Anandan said: “There were typing errors in the result sheets in the 13 wards. The names of the party and the Independents should have been typed in the order as in the ballot boxes. But the number of votes polled by the SDF was written in the Independents’ sheets and vice versa,” he said. Anandan said polling officers of the 13 wards had been told to submit a report to the collectorate.