Jammu, Dec 18 (IANS): A total of 28 constituencies are set to witness polling in the eighth and last phase of District Development Council (DDC) elections across Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday. Voting will be held for 285 panch and 84 sarpanch seats.

State Election Commissioner (SEC) KK Sharma told the media on Friday that 13 constituencies in Kashmir division and 15 in Jammu division will witness polling, wherein 168 candidates are in the fray.

The SEC said that in the 13 Kashmir constituencies, 83 candidates are in the poll fray, including 31 women. A total of 85 candidates, including 15 women, are contesting 15 Jammu division seats.

As many as 6,30,443 electors (3,27,168 male and 3,03,275 female voters) will get to elect their representatives in all 28 DDC constituencies, he said.

A total of 1,703 polling stations have been set up -- 1,028 in Kashmir division and 675 in Jammu division.

Sharma said that of the 165 vacancies for sarpanch seats notified in the 8th phase, 43 have been filled through unopposed elections. As many as 249 candidates are in fray for 84 seats, including 52 females.

Similarly, out of 1,457 vacancies of panch seats notified in this phase, 496 have been filled through unopposed elections. In 285 constituencies that will go to polls, 596 candidates are in fray, including 156 females.

The SEC said that all arrangements for this phase of polling are in place, including those made to ensure the safety of all stakeholders, including voters at the polling stations.

"Sanitisers, thermal scanners and face masks have been made available at the polling stations to ensure that SOPs issued by authorities concerned are strictly followed at the polling stations," the SEC added.