Reportedly, snags in Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) attached with VVPAT were reported from around 180 polling stations – thereby slowing down the balloting.
The assembly elections in Tripura witnessed a turnout of over 75 percent of the total 2536589 voters in the Left-ruled state on Sunday – even as a large number of people kept standing in queues at the end of the official voting hours.
According to Election Department officials, men, women and new voters queued up in large numbers outside the polling booths – to elect a new Assembly – even before the polling began at 7 pm. The counting of the votes will take place on March 3.
“Over 75 per cent electorate had cast their votes till 4 p.m. Though the pre-scheduled voting hours ended at 4 p.m, a huge number of voters were still in queues at a large number of polling stations across the state,” said an Election Department official.
However, snags in Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) attached with VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) were reported from around 180 polling stations – thereby slowing down the balloting.
“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,” said Additional Chief Electoral Officer Tapas Roy.
“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 p.m. will be allowed to cast their ballot even till late night,” he added.
While the balloting took place in 59 of the total 60 assemblies in the state, the polling at Charilam (Reserved-Tribal) seat was postponed till March 12, due to the death of sitting MLA and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) candidate Ramendra Narayan Debbarma.
With 2,536,589 people – including 1,250,128 women and 47,803 first-time voters – eligible with voting rights, 47 of the total 3174 polling stations were completely handled by women personnel.
“Apprehending trouble by tribal outfits, a record 50,000 paramilitary and other security personnel were deployed while two air surveillance teams led by senior officials were deployed on helicopters,” said an official.
According to political experts, Tripura – which had earlier witnessed electoral battle between the CPM and the Congress – will be witnessing a fight for power between the saffron party and the Left in the upcoming elections.