Lok Sabha Polls: Assam records more than 70% voter turn out in 1st phase

Guwahati: More than 70.77 percent voters came out to exercise their franchise in the first phase of polling for five Lok Sabha constituencies in Assam on Friday. Long queues were seen outside booths since the morning.

Informing that polling was peaceful on all the booths, security sources said that the election commission had made elaborate security arrangements along the inter-state border with Arunachal Pradesh in Upper Assam.

Prominent candidates in the fray were union minister and BJP nominee Sarbananda Sonowal and his rival Lurinjyoti Gogoi as the opposition supported candidate from Dibrugarh, Lok Sabha deputy leader of opposition Gaurav Gogoi of Congress from Jorhat, who is contesting against BJP sitting MP Topon Gogoi, the ruling party's Lakhimpur sitting MP Pradan Baruah, Rajya Sabha MP Kamakhya Prasad Tasa and MLA Ranjit Dutta.

There were reports of EVM malfunctioning from at least three polling booths of Bihpuria in Lakhimpur, one each in Hojai, Kaliabor and Bokakhat, and one in Naharkatia of Dibrugarh, an official said.

“Most of the glitches were noticed during the mock poll, which started 90 minutes before the commencement of the actual voting. Those glitches were rectified immediately. Voting started sometime late in those booths and now it is going smoothly,” he said.

Official sources said that an SUV carrying an electronic voting machine partially sank into a river after water level rose suddenly washing away a mechanised boat that was ferrying the vehicle in Assam's Lakhimpur constituency on Friday.

The driver and the polling officer of the vehicle managed to escape before water gushed into the vehicle. It was on its way to Amarpur area in Sadiya to replace an EVM after a technical glitch was detected in it as polling commenced in the morning, the official said.

The total number of polling stations in the first phase was 10,001, of which 92 were model polling stations, 11 PwD-managed and 752 female-managed centres. Webcasting was available at 5,509 polling stations.

Lankeswar Barua, a 100-year-old senior citizen, decided not to opt for home voting and went along with his wife to a booth in Naharkatia in Dibrugarh. “Who said I am old? I can come myself and vote. I have never voted from home, why should I when I can walk around?” he told reporters.

A total of 40,004 polling personnel were engaged in the first phase, with a posse of security personnel from state and central forces.

In total, 35 candidates are in the fray in the five constituencies.