Tripura Assembly Elections: 78.56% voter turnout recorded till 9 pm

AGARTALA: Tripura recorded a voter turnout of 78.56% till 9 pm, but the Election Commission is yet to receive reports from more than 80 polling stations where voting was continuing till late evening.

In several places, long queues were seen outside polling stations even after the official closing time of 4 pm. Officials said that the voters had reached the polling stations well within the closing time but had to wait for their turn.

Tripura chief electoral officer Sriram Taranikanta said that the final figure could increase after all the reports are compiled after the completion of the polling process.

Earlier in the morning, voting was delayed by technical snags in EVMS and VVPAT machines at various polling stations. The CEO said, “Twelve EVM machines and 97 VVAPAT machines had to be replaced but this is far less than anywhere in the country.”

Tripura is known for very high voter turnout. In 2013 the state recorded a staggering 93.61 % voting percentage, the highest ever in the country.

The election was held in 59 of the total 60 seats. The Election Commission has shifted voting in

Charilam

constituency (Scheduled Tribe) to March 12 after one of the candidates, Ramendra Narayan Debbarma (CPM), died last week. The state has more than 25.3 lakh voters and there are 292 candidates in fray.

Prominent candidates include chief minister Manik Sarkar, who is seeking a fifth consecutive term, Biplab

Deb

and Sudip Roy Barman (both from BJP) and

Birajit Sinha

(Congress). While Deb is president of BJP’s state unit, Sinha heads Congress’s Tripura unit.

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