Polling for the third and final phase of panchayati raj institutions in Himachal Pradesh is underway, registering a 41.68% voter turnout by 11am on Saturday.First-time voters showing their inked fingers after exercising their franchise at Gumma panchayat in Shimla district on Saturday. (HT Photo)Long queues of voters of all age groups were seen early at polling stations across the state.Veteran voters participated with enthusiasm, including chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s 88-year-old mother, Sansar Dei, who cast her vote, and 105-year-old Basanti Devi, who exercised her franchise in Ward Kas of Kas panchayat in Jogindernagar assembly constituency.In a striking display of democratic spirit, villagers in the Naghiyar panchayat of Jhandutta, Bilaspur, carried a person unable to walk to the polling booth in a makeshift palanquin.Among the districts, Sirmaur recorded the highest initial turnout at 49.5%, while Bilaspur reported the lowest at 39.14%.No untoward incident was reported, police said.A total of 15,40,324 voters—comprising 7,76,802 men, 7,63,517 women, and five third-gender voters—are eligible to exercise their franchise across 1,189 panchayats in the final leg.To streamline the voting process, the administration has deployed colour-coded ballot papers: White for ward members, yellow for up-pradhans, green for pradhans, pink for panchayat samiti members, and blue for zila parishad members.This concludes a massive democratic exercise across the hill state to elect 31,182 public representatives, including 3,754 pradhans, 3,754 up-pradhans, 21,654 ward members, 1,769 panchayat samiti members, and 251 zila parishad members.Out of the total pool of candidates, 10,854 office-bearers have already been elected unopposed.The three-phase election covers nearly 50.89 lakh eligible voters.The first phase saw a 78.9% turnout across 1,293 panchayats, while the second phase on May 28 recorded an 80% turnout across 1,276 panchayats.Voting is scheduled to conclude at 3pm today, after which the counting of votes for the panchayats will begin immediately, with results expected later this evening.Meanwhile, the counting for the zila parishad, panchayat samitis, and the four municipal corporations of Solan, Mandi, Palampur, and Dharamshala will take place on Sunday.The municipal corporation votes will be counted at their respective headquarters, while the zila parishad and panchayat samiti tallies will be conducted at their respective block headquarters.