69 per cent turnout in Manipur assembly polls
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Brisk polling with a voter turnout of 69 per cent was recorded till 1 pm in the first phase of Manipur assembly election today.
Manipur Chief Electoral Officer Vivek Kumar Dewangan said 69 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise in the first five hours of voting.
“Given the circumstances in the state and the nature of voting, turnout is likely to increase after 2 pm”, said State Nodal Officer (Elections) W Chandrakumar Singh. ‘No report of violence has been reported from anywhere in the state. The rise in voter turnout reflected a sense of responsibility among the voters’, he added.
Voting for the first phase of polling in Manipur covering 38 constituencies began at 7 am today amidst tight security. It will end at 3 pm. Long queues were visible in front of the polling booths and women voters were also seen in large numbers.
Central paramilitary forces of 280 companies and armed police of other states have been deployed for maintaining peaceful polling. No untoward incident has been reported so far, the EC said.
An electorate of 19,02,562 comprising 9,28,573 male and 9,73,989 female voters will decide the fate of 168 candidates. The number of new voters is 45,642. Of the total 1,643 polling stations where polling is being held, the EC has identified 837 polling stations as hyper sensitive and 529 as sensitive.
