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Patna, May 15 (IANS) An estimated 60 percent voting was recorded Sunday in the ninth round of Bihar's ten-phased panchayat polls, officials said. The polling was marred by Maoist violence in which an election official was killed, two were injured and seven were missing and suspected to be abducted by the rebels.
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Sunday's round encompassed 46 blocks, 14 of them Maoist-affected, in 29 districts to elect representatives for 21,640 village council posts. Around 41 lakh voters were eligible to exercise their franchise while 69,942 candidates are in the fray.
Voting began on a violent note when one polling official was killed and two critically injured in a landmine blast triggered by the rebels in Jamui, a Maoist-affected district about 160 km from Patna, police said.
"Maoists targeted a police vehicle in which polling officials were going to conduct polls in a village in Jamui," a police officer said.
Seven polling officials were missing following the bombing. "There is no trace of them. Maoists may have abducted them," a police official in Jamui told IANS over the telephone.
Additional Director General of Police Rajwardhan Sharma said that apart from the Jamui incident, polling was by and large peaceful due to the tight security.
Police arrested over 600 troublemakers and seized 150 vehicles during polls across the state to ensure free and fair polls.
Sharma said that that armed security forces, including central paramilitary forces, were deployed at polling booths to ensure free and fair polling.
Till date, over 4 lakh "troublemakers and habitual offenders" have signed undertakings promising not to disrupt the polls, police said.
Last month, the state election commission made it clear that if a candidate is attacked or intimidated during polls, his rival will be named in the police report.
The first round of panchayat polls saw a police officer and a woman voter being killed in a rebel attack in Jamui. The second round also saw a man being killed during polls. Similarly in eighth round, one man was killed during polls. But the rest of the rounds passed off peacefully, except for sporadic incidents of violence.
The Maoists had issued a poll boycott call and threatened to disrupt the elections.
Elections in Bihar were once known for violence and booth capturing. In the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, 74 people were killed in poll-related violence. About 20 people were killed in the 2004 general elections and 158 during the 2001 panchayat elections.
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