Brisk polling is being witnessed in by-election to the Kerala Assembly from Neyyattinkara constituency on Saturday.
The polling began at 7 a.m. on Saturday morning. The polling percentage crossed 15 per cent in the first two hours of polling in most areas of the constituency.
By 5 p.m., 79.8 per cent of the electorate had cast their votes in the by elections to the Neyyattinkara Assembly constituency on Saturday, according to the revised figure released by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Kerala.
The following is the polling percentage at the panchayat level: Neyyattinkara municipality- 78.6 per cent, Athiyannoor panchayat- 80.9 per cent, Chenkal panchayat- 81 per cent, Karode panchayat- 77.8 per cent, Kulathur panchayat- 79.3 per cent and Tirupuram panchayat- 83.8 per cent.
There are 1,64,856 voters in the constituency, 85,441 of them women.
At the Valiavila LP School where three polling booths are functioning, the election authorities shifted two policemen on election duty following complaints that they were canvassing votes for a political party. The Election Commission also deployed a video surveillance team at the school following the incident.
Tension prevailed at the polling booth at Mariyapuram in the coastal belt in the morning following a dispute over the removal of posters put up by different political parties. Police prevented a flare up by removing the publicity material put up by the CPI(M), BJP and Congress.
At Tirupuram, polling was delayed by 30 minutes after an electronic voting machine developed a technical glitch. Voting resumed after the election officials rectified the problem.
In the coastal belt of the constituency, polling picked up after 10 am after a slow start. CISF personnel were posted in the coastal areas to check untoward incidents. There are 143 polling stations spread across the constituency, of which five have been classified as vulnerable and 69 sensitive.
