Agartala: Voting to elect three-tier local self-governments in the Left Front-ruled northeastern state of Tripura ended peacefully Monday evening with more than 85 percent turnout, officials reported .

"Braving soaring temperature and security threats, over 85 percent of the 1,020,200 voters have cast their ballot across the state," said G.C. Bhattacharjee, secretary of the State Election Commission.

He said voting passed off peacefully with no untoward incident reported from anywhere in the state. However, a polling official died following a heart attack at Sonamura in western Tripura late Sunday night.

Voters in large numbers queued up well before polling booths opened at 7 a.m. and many voted until late evening. The state government had declared a holiday Monday to enable the voters to exercise their franchise.

The ballots will be counted Thursday. The poll will decide the electoral fate of 11,831 candidates, including 4,383 women, in the elections to the gram panchayats, panchayat samitis and zila parishads. Over 70 percent of the aspirants were contesting the polls for the first time.

Candidates belonging to the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left Front, the Congress, the Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other smaller parties are fighting these rural polls to the 5,295 seats of 511 gram panchayats, 299 seats in 23 panchayat samitis, and 82 seats in four zila parishads.

The Left Front has already won 109 seats unopposed.

In the previous local bodies elections in 2004, the Left Front had won 4,797 gram panchayat seats, 285 panchayat samiti seats and 81 zila parishad seats while the opposition Congress secured 489 gram panchayat seats, 19 panchayat samiti and one zila parishad seat.

The government has reserved 1,900 of the 5,676 seats in the three-tier panchayat system for women.

The one-and-a-half-month-long hectic election campaign ended Saturday.

"Instead of electronic voting machines (EVM), the traditional method of voting through ballot papers and ballot boxes were used," said state Election Commissioner Y.P. Singh.

For the first time, photo identity cards had been made compulsory for voters.

The polls were held under a heavy security cover.

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