Jharkhand, Friday18 December 2009: Amid webcam observation of eight booths by the Election Commission, voting for the fifth and final phase of polling for 16 Assembly seats, most of them Maoist infested, began in Jharkhand at 7 am on Friday.

“The officials of the EC in New Delhi and state EC in Ranchi are watching the polling through webcams in eight booths — one each in Chaibasa, Sareikela, Garhwa, Chatra, Latehar, Barkatha and two in Palamau,” a spokesman at the EC said here.

Besides tight security arrangements, a total of 126 video and 378 digital still cameras are also being used to oversee the polling.

The constituencies going for polls are Chatra, Latehar, Simaria, Panki, Bishrampur, Hussainabad, Chhatarpur, Garhwa, Bhawnathpur, Manika, Chaibasa, Barkatha, Jagannathpur, Sareikella, Kharsawan and Daltonganj.

A total of 33,96,472 electorate are eligible to decide the fate of 290 candidates contesting from the seats. Bhawnathpur has a maximum of 25 candidates while Chatra with 10 contestants has the lowest number.

Polling for 65 seats of the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly has already been completed in the previous four phases. Voting would end at 3 pm and results for all the seats will be out on December 23.