Dehradun/Haldwani, July 29 -- The voting for the second phase of panchayat elections in Uttarakhand were held peacefully on Monday, according to State Election Commission (SEC) officials. As the polling came to an end on Monday, officials said the votes will be counted on July 31. The polling percentage was 12.42% at 10 am, which increased to 29.22% by noon. By 2pm, it rose to 41.95%. Till 4pm, it was 58.12%. At the time of writing this report, the final figures were yet to be released by the state election commission. State election commission secretary Rahul Kumar Goyal said, "As of 4pm, the voter turnout was 58.12%, but updated figures will be available by the evening." No untoward incident happened during the polling, he said. Chamoli district magistrate Sandeep Tiwari said, "The second phase of voting for panchayat elections in the district was held peacefully. No issue of any kind was reported." At Shankarpur polling station in Ramnagar, a heated exchange was reported between local MLA from BJP Diwan Singh Bisht and a police official on election duty. The MLA accused the police official of misbehaving with the voters, including elderly, and disrupting the polling process. "He was misbehaving with the voters," he said. He demanded the officer's immediate removal and filed a complaint with the SDM and nodal officer Pramod Kumar. The SDM said if any misconduct is proven in probe, strict action will be taken against the officer. At a booth set up in the government primary school at Dholakhera on Bareilly Road, a woman candidate alleged that votes were being cast without Aadhaar verification. The woman created a ruckus at the booth but was eventually pacified by polling officials. In Sariyatal of Nainital district, a power outage forced voters to cast their votes in candlelight. Voters in hilly areas such as Siuda, Jeolikot, and Hairakhan faced problems due to waterlogging. "There was a lot of inconvenience at the booth due to waterlogging. No arrangements were made for drainage or protection from rain, despite prior weather alerts," said Sarvesh Tiwari, a resident of Siuda. The counting of votes will take place on July 31, according to the state election commission. The polling was earlier scheduled to be conducted in two phases -- on July 10 and July 15 -- with counting on July 19. However, the election process was halted following the high court stay on June 23. The high court had stayed the three tier panchayat elections in the state while hearing separate petitions filed by Ganesh Datt Kandpal and Virendra Singh Butola, who pointed out that the reservation rules framed by the state had not been officially notified in the government gazette, rendering the entire process invalid. On June 27, the high court vacated the stay on panchayat elections and ordered the state election commission to resume the process. According to the state election commission, across 89 development blocks in 12 districts,the elections are taking place in two phases to elect 55,587 village panchayat members, 7,499 village panchayat heads (pradhans), 2,974 block development council members, and 358 district (zila) panchayat members. Over 4.77 million voters are to vote in panchayat elections - an increase of 10.57% from 2019 panchayat elections, of which 2.3 million are women, and 2.46 million are men....