PATNA, June 29 -- Around 62.41% of the electors exercised their franchise in the elections/by-elections conducted for various posts in 42 municipalities across 26 districts on Saturday. As many as nine ward councillors, including one in the general election and eight in the byelections, were declared elected unopposed. Talking to media persons post polling, chief election commissioner Deepak Prasad said that the voting for a total of 136 posts, of which 96 for full term and 40 for residual stints, passed off peacefully. General elections were held to elect 84 ward councillors, six deputy chief councillors and six chief councillors, while the byelections were conducted 37 seats of ward councillors, two deputy chief councillors and one chief councillor. "For the first time in India, the state election commission had opted to conduct the e-voting, which received overwhelming response from the electors. The e-voting has been conducted for both general elections and by-elections. About 80.60% of the total electors, who registered for e-voting through specially designed mobile applications, have exercised their franchise in the general elections, while 58.38% of the electors voted in the by-elections for various seats," said Prasad. Bihar is the first state where e-voting mechanism was adopted after amending the rules in 2022. "In fact, Bihar took the lead not only in India, but in the whole of the world, barring a few smaller and highly digitised countries, in demonstrating how e-voting can be conducted to ensure free, fair, safe and secure voting. A total of 38,000 electors out of 3.74 lakh voters had registered for e-voting," said the chief election commissioner, adding that C-DAC, a Hyderabad-based tech company and the local IT unit have played pivotal roles in the successful conduct of the e-voting....