Over seventy per cent of a total of eight lakh voters today cast their votes for the two autonomous tribal councils in Meghalaya's Khasi Jaintia Hills region - the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council and the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council - where 212 candidates belonging to six different political parties are contesting for 58 seats.
The voters turn out for the autonomous tribal council poll was, however, less than the last assembly elections last year which recorded a voters turnout of 88.06.
About 70.8 per cent of the 6.68 lakh voters in the Khasi Hills and 58 per cent out of 2.09 lakh voters casted their votes, District Council Affairs Commissioner & Secretary Jopthiaw Lyngdoh told reporters.
People in large numbers are still queuing up beyond the stipulated time of 4 PM in a lot of polling stations, election officials said.
Apart from stray incidences, the poll was held in a peaceful, free and fair manner, he said.
However due to connectivity problem, the figures were collected till 7 pm adding that the overall total figure is expected to shoot up tentatively to 75 per cent.
Sohra and Shella polling stations recorded the highest turnout at 82.38 per cent and 73.95 per cent respectively.
While polling was peaceful in all polling stations including those identified as hyper-sensitive, polling in Umladang polling station under Nartiang-Umladang constituency in West Jaintia Hills District was stopped following the attack of a group of 30 - 40 men who barged in and destroyed the electronic voting machine.
Of the 1,492 polling, a total of 210 polling stations under KHADC and JHADC have been declared as "hyper-sensitive" while 355 as "sensitive" by the State election department.
The ruling Congress is the only party contesting all the 58 seats followed by the UDP in 45 seats.
The HSPDP is contesting in only 25 seats, KHNAM 13, NCP 7, and NPP 1 besides 63 independents from both the ADCs.
The counting will take place on February 27.
