In the third phase of the urban local bodies (ULB) elections in Jammu and Kashmir, voters thronged polling stations across Samba district of Jammu region and Baramulla on Saturday.

In Samba, the fate of 242 candidates in 56 municipal wards has to be decided. Besides Samba, at the time of writing, voting was in progress in the third phase of the four-phased ULB polls in the Valley covering a total of 96 wards of eight municipalities’ 40 wards in Kashmir’s Anantnag, Baramulla and Srinagar districts.

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Till 2 pm, 73.9 % people had voted in Samba, while voter turnout in Baramulla was 72.7%.

Anantnag and Srinagar witnessed lower voter turnout till 2 pm with figures resting at 2.7% and 1.5%, respectively.

In Samba district, polls were being held for the four municipal committees of Samba, Ramgarh, Vijaypur and Bari Brahamana. In Anantnag, voting took place for the Mattan municipal committees while in Baramulla district voting was held for Uri and Sopore. For the Srinagar municipal corporation, voting is being held in four wards.

With today’s voting in Samba, the ULB elections in all the 10 districts of Jammu region will be completed.

The first phase of elections covering three districts of Jammu, Poonch and Rajouri on October 8 recorded 65 per cent voter turnout, while in the second phase on October 10 covering six districts of Kathua, Udhampur, Ramban, Doda, Reasi and Kishtwar witnessed 78.6 per cent voting.

The fourth phase on October 16 will be held in six districts of Kashmir valley.

Municipal elections are being held in four phases, covering 79 municipal bodies with an electorate of about 17 lakh electors. A total of 3,372 nominations have been filed for 1145 wards.

The counting of votes will be held on October 20.