Monday, December 19 2005 19:39 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: About 55 to 60 per cent of an estimated 1.2 crore electorate exercised their franchise today (Dec 19, 2005) in the first phase of elections held to Zill and Taluk Panchayats in 14 out of 27 districts in Karnataka, which went off trouble free barring minor incidents, according to state electoral authorities.

The voters sealed the poll fortunes of about 9500 aspirants from Congress, Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP), Samajwadi Party, AIPJD and scores of independents in 14 Zilla Panchayats and 89 Taluk Panchayats.

Barring minor incidents of disputes over proxy voting, the poll process over which about 70,000 police personnel kept a watch, ended peacefully, authorities said.

The coalition Government partners Congress and JDS have fought keenly the first Panchayat polls being held under their rule.

Elections were held in the districts of Chikamagalur, Kodagu, Chamarajanagar, Udupi, Shimoga, Hassan, Uttara Kannada, Gadag, Dharwad, Belgaum, Haveri, Mysore, Mandya and Dakshina Kannada.

13 districts will go to polls on December 23 in the second phase and the counting of votes would be taken up on December 27.