Chandigarh, Oct 29 (IANS): A total of 49,67,092 voters in nine districts of Haryana will exercise franchise in the first phase of polling for 1,278 Panchayat Samiti and 175 Zilla Parishad members on Sunday, said state Election Commissioner Dhanpat Singh.

He said 6,019 polling booths have been set up and all preparations have been completed for conducting a free and transparent poll.

In 61 blocks of Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Jind, Kaithal, Mahendragarh, Nuh, Panchkula, Panipat and Yamunanagar districts polling will be held.

An additional police force has been deployed in sensitive and hyper-sensitive polling booths, he said.

In view of inconvenience caused to the voters, adequate arrangements have been made for drinking water, uninterrupted electricity and wheelchair so that persons with disabilities and the elderly can easily cast their votes.

Singh said after the panchayat elections in all 22 districts are over on November 27, the counting of ballot will take place simultaneously.

He said time all activities related to panchayat elections can be seen on the 'Mhari Panchayat' portal developed by NIC. In this, the nominations of the candidates and the final list of the candidates will be uploaded.