Saturday, 20 April 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Polling was held in a peaceful manner in all the five Lok Sabha constituencies of Uttarakhand on Friday. Barring a couple of incidents where the polling was disturbed for some time the voting was held peacefully in the State.
The State reported a total 53.56 per cent voter turnout in the five LS constituencies after the end of the polling at 5 PM. The figure is likely to be revised as data of many polling booths will be added to it later. However, experts believe that the revised voter turnout figure is likely to remain at 55- 57 per cent which is much less than the 61.50 per cent turnout reported in the LS elections of 2019. The tentative data of EC shows that 59.36 per cent turnout was reported in Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar constituency, 59.01 per cent in Haridwar, 44.43 per cent in Almora, 51.01 per cent in Tehri and 48.79 per cent in Garhwal constituency.
The polling started at 7 AM on a high note in all the 11,729 polling stations in the State. At many polling stations people were seen standing in queues in the early part of the day to cast their vote. The complaints of malfunctioning of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were reported in many polling stations. The additional chief electoral officer (ACEO) Vijay Kumar Jogdande said that complaints of malfunctioning of 35 Control Units (CUs) were reported by officials while 40 Ballot Units (BUs) reportedly malfunctioned in different parts of the State. He said that malfunctioning was reported during the mock voting trials conducted before the start of the voting process. The faulty EVMs were replaced by authorities where necessary. In the first two hours, 10.54 per voters exercised their franchise which increased to 24.83 per cent till 11 AM. Till 1 PM 37.33 voter turnout was reported that was higher than the 36 per cent turnout till the time in the LS elections of 2019.
After 1 PM the enthusiasm of voters of the State became subdued and at many places the polling stations appeared deserted. At 3 PM 45.62 per cent turnout was reported by the. In the evening also the polling failed to pick up pace. authorities
