Polling for the second phase of panchayat elections across 1,276 panchayats in Himachal Pradesh began at 7am on Thursday, recording a voter turnout of 21.36% within the first two hours.Voters queueing up to exercise their franchise in the panchayat elections at Nahan in Sirmaur district on Thursday. (HT Photo)Long queues formed early in the morning as both first-time voters and senior citizens showed enthusiasm at the booths.Sirmaur district registered the highest initial turnout at 23.59%, while Lahaul and Spiti district recorded the lowest at 14.62%.A total of 17.3 lakh voters are eligible to cast their ballots in this phase, comprising 8,74,416 men, 8,55,597 women, and 17 third-gender individuals.The democratic exercise is part of a larger three-phase election process to choose 31,182 public representatives, which includes 3,754 pradhans, 3,754 up-pradhans, 21,654 ward members, 1,769 panchayat samiti members, and 251 zila parishad members.Of the total pool of candidates, 10,854 office-bearers have already been elected unopposed.Across all three phases, roughly 50.89 lakh voters are eligible to participate.The administration is using colour-coded ballot papers to streamline the process: White for ward members, yellow for up-pradhans, green for pradhans, pink for panchayat samiti members, and blue for zila parishad members.While the first phase on Tuesday covered 1,293 panchayats and drew a final voter turnout of 78.9%, the third and final phase for the remaining 1,274 panchayats is scheduled for May 30.State election commission secretary Surjit Singh Rathore confirmed that polling for Ward No. 2 of Samwal panchayat in the Tissa Block of Chamba, which was previously postponed due to rule violations by officials, has also been rescheduled for May 30.Except for block samiti and zila parishad members besides four municipal corporations, votes are being counted immediately after polling concludes. The final results for the remaining municipal and parishad seats will be announced on May 31.