LS polls: 37.54% turnout till 11 am in repolling at 11 booths in Manipur

A voter turnout of 37.54 per cent was recorded till 11 am in repolling at 11 polling stations in the Inner Manipur Lok Sabha constituency, officials said on Monday.

"Voters queued up since early morning to exercise their franchise at all the 11 polling stations, which was affected by riot-like situation on Friday. No disturbance or violence has been reported so far on Monday," an election official said.

The repolling began at 7 am in 11 booths in the I-Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituency after incidents of violence were reported at some of the polling booths in conflict-torn Manipur where some miscreants opened fire and even destroyed EVMs.

Security was tightened to check incidents of violence that were reported on April 19.

After the conclusion of the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections, the Manipur Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) announced that re-polling would be conducted at the 11 polling booths of the inner Manipur Lok Sabha seat.

Voting was to be held again at these stations on Monday, according to Manipur Chief Electoral Officer.

This decision was made following a directive from the Election Commission, which declared the initial polls held on April 19 as void.

Manipur saw a voter turnout of 69.18 per cent till 7 pm on Friday.

According to CEO's order, "The Election Commission of India has, under Sections 58(2) and 58A(2) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, directed that the poll taken on April 19 (Friday) in respect of 11 polling stations listed in the table below of 1-inner Manipur parliamentary constituency to be void and appointed April 22, 2024 (Monday) as the date for taking fresh poll at the said polling stations with hours of poll from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM."

The affected polling stations where repolling will be conducted are Moirangkampu Sajeb Upper Primary School and S. Ibobi Primary School (East Wing), in the Khurai assembly constituency, four in Kshetrigao, one in Thongju, three in Uripok, and one in Konthoujam.

On April 19, incidents of violence were reported at some of the polling booths in conflict-torn Manipur where some miscreants opened fire and even destroyed EVMs.

In the incident, one civilian was reported to be injured after the firing, and clashes were reported at a polling booth in Moirangkampu Sajeb Awang Leikai of Imphal, Manipur, during voting in the Lok Sabha elections.

Block Level Officer for Moirangkampu, Sajeb Surbala Devi said, "Suddenly two men came here and asked for polling agents of the Congress and the BJP. They took the Congress agent outside by holding his hand. Then the two men fired shots from inside the car. One person got injured."

All 32 assembly segments of the inner Manipur parliamentary constituency and 15 assembly segments of the outer Manipur (ST) parliamentary constituency voted for the Lok Sabha.

The voting for the remaining 13 segments of Outer Manipur will be held in the second phase on April 26.

The Lok Sabha polls will be held in India in seven phases, from April 19 to June 1 to elect the 543 members of the 18th Lok Sabha.

The second phase will be held on April 26 and the remaining phases will be May 7, 13, 20, 25, and June 1 accordingly. The counting of votes will be held on June 4.