Assam records over 67% peaceful polling

Guwahati, April 11 (IANS) The first phase of polling for the five Lok Sabha seats in Assam on Thursday remained largely peaceful even as 67.4 per cent of polling was recorded till evening. The polling percentage will increase as the officials are yet to get reports from some of the remote polling stations.

The polling for Tezpur, Kaliabar, Jorhat, Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur started at 7 am today and over 45 percent of polling was recorded till 3 pm, officials said adding that although there are some technical snags leading to malfunctioning of some electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) yet the polling resumed after replacements were dome.

"As of now we can say the polling percentage is 67.4 per cent. The data are being compiled. The exact polling percentage will be known tomorrow," said an officer of the CEO's office here.

Jorhat constituency recorded the highest at 72 per cent while Tezpur came in second with 70 per cent followed by Dibrugarh with 69 per cent, Kaliabar 64 per cent and Lakhimpur 62 per cent polling.

As many as 41 candidates are in the fray in the five of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam in this first phase of parliamentary elections.

Voting started at 7 a.m. across 9,574 polling stations. A total of 76,03,458 people are eligible to vote till 5 p.m.

Although polling was supposed to end at 5 pm, it continued till the last person on the queue cast his vote.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal voted in Dibrugarh on Thursday morning.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) candidate for the Jorhat constituency Topon Kumar Gogoi voted at a polling station at Sonari and appealed to the people of all sections to exercise their franchise.

Of the 9,574 polling stations, 201 are reserved for women.

The Election Commission has deployed 180 companies of security personnel