Election Commission has said that polling for Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala and Puducherry and the bye-elections in four Assembly Constituencies in three States remained, by and large, peaceful, barring a few incidents.
Assam and Puducherry record the highest-ever poll participation today. Assam registered 85.38% voter turnout, while Puducherry recorded 89.83% voter turnout. Previously, the highest poll participation in Assam was 84.67% in the 2016 Assembly elections, and for Puducherry, it was 86.19% in the 2011 Assembly elections. In Kerala, 78.03% poll participation was recorded today. In by-polls, the Bagalkot Assembly seat in Karnataka registered 68.70% voter turnout, while Davanagere South witnessed a turnout of 68.55%. The Koridang Assembly constituency in Nagaland recorded a turnout of 82.21 percent and the Dharmanagar seat in Tripura recorded a turnout of over 80%.
Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, along with Election Commissioners Dr. S.S. Sandhu and Dr. Vivek Joshi, kept a close watch on the polling through live webcasting, which was ensured at 100% of the Polling Stations for the first time in Assam, Kerala and Puducherry. The Election Commission, in a statement, said that as part of the International Election Visitors’ Programme, 38 delegates from 22 countries witnessed the poll proceedings. It added that mock polls were completed before 7 AM today in the presence of over 1.8 lakh Polling Agents appointed by one thousand 899 contesting candidates. The Commission said that polling began peacefully at all 63,084 polling stations simultaneously.
It further said that a number of new voter-friendly initiatives, such as easily identifiable colour photos of candidates on EVM ballot papers, Mobile Deposit Facility, newly designed Voter Information Slips for easy readability and a limit of electors up to 1,200 per polling station, were ensured in these elections.
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