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The third and final phase of voting for the Karnataka State Assembly elections has begun in the state on Thursday, May 22, 2008. In today’s polling the electorate will give its mandate for 69 constituencies in eight north Karnataka districts. Voting is taking place in the districts like Belgaum, Bagalkot, Dharwad, Haveri, Gulbarga, Bidar, Bijapur, Gadag across 12,389 polling stations in north Karnataka.
The final phase of polling will witness elaborate security arrangements, with the authorities deploying about 58,000 security personnel in the polling districts. The fate of 699 candidates is going to be sealed in today’s ballot. Over 11.72 million voters including 5.76 million women are eligible to cast their franchise.
It is for the first time that Karnataka witnessed voting spread out in three phases. Voting has already taken place in two phases for 155 seats on May 10 and May 16. The counting is scheduled to begin from May 25. The political bigwigs whose fate will be sealed in the ballot boxes on Thursday are former Congress chief minister N. Dharam Singh, state Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and JD-S state President Merajuddin Patel.
