A voter turnout of nearly 82 per cent was recorded in nine Lok Sabha seats in the third leg of the five-phase elections in West Bengal till 6 PM today.
"On an average 81.35 per cent of the voters cast their votes till 6.00 pm in the nine constituencies of Howrah, Uluberia, Serampore, Hooghly, Arambagh, Burdwan (East), Burdwan-Durgapur, Bolpur and Birbhum," Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Gupta said.
"However, there are long queues in many polling stations and the polling will continue till they are cleared. The final turnout can go up a little," Gupta said.
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Barring some stray incident the election was free, fair and peaceful, the CEO said.
EC's Special Observer for the state Sudhir Kumar Rakesh, however, said: "The election was free and fair, but I can't say peaceful. Better you say if it was peaceful or not."
A presiding officer and a polling officer were removed following complaints of partiality and show-cause notice and departmental proceedings were slapped against them, Gupta said.
The action was taken against the presiding officer at Moigram Primary School booth under Arambagh Parliamentary constituency.
