Guwahati/Dibrugarh/Jorhat: The first phase of the panchayat election in Assam, a litmus test for ruling BJP half-way through its term before the Lok Sabha polls next year, was held in 16 districts on Wednesday.According to the Assam state election commission, 65.5% polling was recorded till 3pm. The numbers are likely to go up by another 10% when final reports come in from all the districts. The overall percentage recorded in the 2013 rural polls, which was conducted in three phases, was 76.76.There were isolated incidents of violence during the day. In Golaghat district, a man died in police firing at a polling station.Two other persons died during the day — one at Chhaygaon in Kamrup district and another at Sipajhar in Darrang. They reportedly fell sick and died while they were on their way to polling stations to cast their votes.In other incidents of poll-related violence, a vehicle carrying paramilitary forces was reportedly set on fire by locals after it accidentally hit BJP workers at Gogamukh in upper Assam’s Dhemaji district. The vehicle had injured seven persons, including a pregnant woman. At Raha in Nagaon district , a poll official was reportedly attacked by some voters who accused the official of causing anomalies in the polling process.State election commissioner HN Bora said, “Apart from a few untoward incidents, most of which were related to erroneous printing of ballot papers and voters’ names being missing from the electoral rolls, the first phase of panchayat polls was conducted in a satisfactory manner.”In some polling stations, anomalies were reportedly found in ballot papers while many complained that their names were missing from the electoral rolls.In Biswanath district, voters reportedly snatched away ballot boxes and burned ballot papers after they complained of finding errors in the papers. At least 800 voters at Rowmari in Darrang district and 100-odd voters in Sivasagar district could not vote after they found their names were missing from the electoral rolls. Similar incidents were also reported from Kamrup (Metropolitan) district.The state election commission, however, said voters were responsible in most of these cases as they had not verified their names earlier. All repolls will be held on December 7, Bora said. However, the election commission is yet to confirm which polling stations have been selected for the purpose.A few sporadic incidents of mismatch of party symbols were also reported from certain districts. For instance, at Titabor in Jorhat district , ballot papers erroneously displayed the BJP symbol against the name of a Congress candidate. Similar incidents of symbol mismatch were found at Barhampur in Nagaon district and near Laharighat in Morigaon.Polling in upper Assam’s Dibrugarh district was largely peaceful on Wednesday. The district witnessed 53.34% polling till 1pm. In some polling stations, voting continued till 5pm due to huge turnout of voters in the afternoon hours.Altogether 3,214 candidates are in the fray for 23 zila parishad member seats, 93 gaon panchayat president seats, 93 anchalik parishad member seats and 930 gaon panchayat member seats in Dibrugarh.Voting was also mostly peaceful in Jorhat district. Jorhat returning officer Narayan Konwar said, “The poll percentage touched 60 at 3pm. In some polling stations, voting continued till 5.30pm.”Golaghat recorded a turnout of 53% till 3pm on Wednesday. District administration officials the percentage might go up to 60 later. In Golaghat and Jorhat, Assam assembly speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami, Jorhat MP Kamakhya Prasad Tasa and AGP president Atul Bora queued up with the people and cast their votes.

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