Hyderabad: About 78 per cent of over 46lakh voters exercised their franchise in the third and final phase of elections to Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies and zilla parishad territorial constituencies in the state of Telangana.

The poll percentage stood at 77.63 per cent, according to the figures supplied by the Telangana State Election Commission.

The election was held for 161 ZPTCs, for which 741 candidates are in the fray.Polling was held for 1708 MPTCs, with 5726 candidates. The total poll percentage for all the three phases stood at 77.81 per cent.

Polling was held from 7 AM to 5 PM, while in Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected areas, it started at 7 AM and concluded at 4 PM, officials said.

The first phase of polling, which was held on May 6, witnessed 76.80 per cent voter turnout while it was 77.63 per cent in the second phase on May 10.

The Telangana State Election Commission had last month released the election schedule for 5,817 MPTCs and 539 ZPTCs and announced that the first phase polls would be held on May 6, the second on May 10 and the third on May 14.

Around 1.56 crore voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in the elections to two upper tiers of local bodies. The elections are being held through ballot and counting would be held on May 27, officials had earlier said. After the ZPTC and MPTC polls, Mandal Praja Parishad and Zilla Praja Parishad (ZPP) members will be elected.(PTI)

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