Over 75pc turnout in peaceful Tripura polls
AGARTALA: Over 75 per cent of the 2,536,589 voters in Leftruled Tripura had exercised their franchise in a peaceful manner to elect a new Assembly on Sunday even as a large number were still standing in queues at the end of official voting hours, officials said.
Election Department officials said both men and women, including new voters, had queued up in large numbers outside polling booths across Tripura even before polling began at 7 am.
A total of 292 candidates, including 23 women and many independents, are in the fray. Counting of votes will take place on March 3.
“Over 75 per cent electorate had cast their votes till 4 pm. Though the pre-scheduled voting hours ended at 4 pm, a huge numbers of voters were still in queues at a large number of polling stations across the state,” an Election Department official said.
The official said snags in Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) attached with VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) were reported from around 180 polling stations, resulting in slow balloting.
Voters, candidates and leaders of all political parties expressed anger over the malfunctioning EVMs-VVPATs.
In the 2013 and 2008 Assembly polls, Tripura witnessed record balloting at 92 and 91 per cent respectively.
“The Election Commission put up specially modified EVMs attached with VVPATs at all 3,174 polling stations. We replaced or rectified faulty EVM-VVPATs and voting resumed in those polling stations afterwards,” Additional Chief Electoral Officer Tapas Roy said. “Voting was entirely peaceful and incident-free. A large number of electorate, including women, are still standing in queues at hundreds of polling stations. The voters who entered the polling station complex before 4 pm will be allowed to cast their ballot even till late night.”
Balloting was held in 59 of the 60 Assembly constituencies. Polling was deferred to March 12 in Charilam (Reserved-Tribal) seat due to the death of sitting MLA and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) candidate Ramendra Narayan Debbarma.
Of the 3,174 polling stations, a total of 47 were totally handled by women personnel. In all, 2,536,589 people, including 1,250,128 women and 47,803 first-time voters, were eligible to vote.
The ruling CPM fielded 56 candidates, leaving one seat each to its Left Front partners Communist Party of India, Forward Bloc, and Revolutionary Socialist Party.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is contesting 50 seats, leaving nine seats for its ally, the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT).