Delhi votes to pick trifurcated civic body (Fourth Lead)

New Delhi, April 15 (IANS) The national capital voted Sunday to pick a new team for its trifurcated civic body, with more people coming out to vote this election compared to last time. The percentage at close of voting was much above the 2007 figure of 42.7 percent, officials said.

The polling figure was 43 percent at 4 p.m., the election commission said.

Voting ended at 5.30 p.m sealing the fate of over 2,400 candidates.

"Voting percentage till 4 p.m. was 43 percent. This is higher than the polling percentage of 42.7 percent in 2007 civic polls," said an election commission official.

"The number is expected to rise once all the figures are compiled," added the official.

Ballots were cast for 272 seats with a tough battle between the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress.

This is the first time the capital voted for the trifurcated Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

The election commission had earlier hoped for a turnout of around 50 percent with the help of awareness campaigns urging people to vote.

Over one crore voters were eligible to exercise their franchise across 11,543 booths in the capital to decide the fate of 2,423 candidates.

In the newly trifurcated MCD, the corporations of north and south have 104 wards each, while the east Delhi corporation has 64.

while sanitation and development remained key issues for the civic polls, people in some parts of the capital boycotted polls citing poor development in their areas in the last many years.

Women voters, that formed 44 percent of total voters in the national capital, turned up in high numbers, the commission noticed.

A total of 30,000 armed police personnel were deployed at the booths to ensure free and fair elections. The BJP, which rules the corporation, had swept the 2007 elections in the then unified MCD with 168 seats.

With the Delhi assembly elections due in end-2013, the results will have significant impact on the morale of the parties.