The first round of elections on Monday in the six parliamentary constituencies of the North-East recorded a high turnout. In Assam where five constituencies went to the poll, the Election Commission described the turnout as above average with over 72.5 per cent voters casting their vote. The turnout was well above the 69.60 per cent voting registered for the entire State in the 2009 polls.
The Tripura West constituency also recorded an overwhelmingly high turnout of 84 per cent. According to the Election Commission, the final figure could go up by 1-2 per cent.
Our Agartala correspondent adds:
Election in West Tripura parliamentary constituency passed off peacefully on Monday. Returning officer Abhishek Singh expected around 85 per cent casting after compilation of votes from all centres.
"Polling is still going on in two-three centres. It will take some time to know the actual voting percentage, but definitely would end around 85 percent", he told The Hindu .
Little over 85 per cent voting recorded in 2009 parliamentary poll and this time more voting was expected in view of national record voting turnout (93 per cent) in 2013 Assembly poll in Tripura.
Major chunk of voting occurred in first few hours of morning and the exercise was relatively slow in the afternoon. 12,46,794 (6,12,092 of them female) electors were eligible to cast vote at 1,605 polling centres.
Election was peaceful, except some complaints of intimidation and threat. EVMs in some polling centres developed technical snags and they were replaced without hindering voting.
