Guwahati (Assam) [India], April 22 (ANI): Voting for the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) elections began in the city on Friday morning.

The voting is being held for 57 out of 60 wards under GMC and a total of 197 candidates in the fray.

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Santosh Sharma, a voter in Guwahati, said the development of Assam, a state free of drugs trafficking and peace are the key issues of the Guwahati Municipal Corporation election.

Ritesh, another voter, hoped that the winning candidate would provide tap water supply and improve sanitation.

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"Although Assam is witnessing development, there are still certain areas which need to be paid attention to. Water supply is a problem here and so is waterlogging (during the rainy season). Attention should be paid to women's empowerment," said a woman voter.

In this election, a total of 757 polling stations have been set up out of which 80 polling stations will be conducted exclusively by women polling officials.

For the first time, EVMs will be used in GMC Election. In this election, a total of 7,97,807 voters will exercise their franchise out of which 3,97,128 numbers of voters are male, 4,00,658 numbers are female and 26 numbers voters belong to the third gender.

Voting started at 7.30 am and will conclude at 4.30 pm today.

The counting of votes will be held on April 24 at Maniram Dewan Trade Centre and the result will be declared the same day. (ANI)

(The above story is verified and authored by ANI staff, ANI is South Asia's leading multimedia news agency with over 100 bureaus in India, South Asia and across the globe. ANI brings the latest news on Politics and Current Affairs in India & around the World, Sports, Health, Fitness, Entertainment, & News. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)