Voter turnout in the third phase of election in West Bengal covering 11 Parliamentary constituencies was over 70 per cent till 5 pm, as per the initial estimates of the Election Commission.
“The number is expected to increase further as many people are still standing in the queue,” said Debasis Sen, chief electoral officer, West Bengal.
Apart from some cases of slow polling reported from some areas in the North Kolkata seat and some incidents of poll boycott and technical snag, the third phase polling was relatively peaceful compared to the earlier two phases, said Sen.
In total, five cases of poll boycott have been reported- three from Jaynagar and one each from Jadavpur and Kalyani. Around 100 EVMs developed technical snag becaused of water seepage due to heavy downpour yesterday. These machines were not despatched to the booths from Fakir Chand College in Diamond Harbour.
“The polling parties could not reach. Precautions should have been taken. We are looking into the matter. Election could not be held in 100 booths today because of this.Election will be held on May 14 in these booths. Assistant election commissioner has gone to supervise,” said Sen. The affected booths fell under the Mathurapur Parliamentary Constituency.
Around 88 electronic voting machines (EVMs) had to be changed today due to technical snag.
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There have been several requests for repoll. A decision on these will be taken tommorow after scrutiny and reports from police and observers.
This time counting will be held in 52 centres. This time the Election Commission is also trying to bring in an internal projection system and a trend analysis system on the counting day from the media centre of the CEO’s office.