Barring minor incidents of violence, elections to Lok Sabha in the six parliamentary constituencies of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur and Nagaland were conducted peacefully on Wednesday. Owing to a longstanding dispute between Assam and Nagaland, the Election Commission could not set up a polling station in the affected area.
Simultaneous elections were held by the two parliamentary and 60 assembly constituencies of Arunachal Pradesh where 71 per cent voting was recorded till 5 p.m. Since there were still queues at most of the polling station and reports were yet to be collated from the remote corners of the State, the EC expects the final figure to be higher, compared to the 68 per cent voting registered during the 2009 general elections.
Incidents of violence as a result of local rivalry and other law and order issues were reported from seven places.
All the two parliamentary constituencies of Meghalaya went to the polls on Wednesday, recording a turnout of 64 per cent till 5 p.m. Two cases of paid news were reported. The EC expects the figure to be around 66 per cent, higher than 64.42 per cent in the previous Lok Sabha elections. The Outer Manipur constituency recorded over 77.43 per cent polling, with a large number of voters still lined up for their turn. One case of an electronic voting machine being damaged was reported from Chandel.
In Nagaland, the EC had by 5 p.m. received reports about 82.5 per cent voting. However, it was yet to collate details from the inaccessible areas. A polling station said to be located under the Longleng district bordering Assam could not be set up at the area government school, due to objections raised by the Assam Police. The school is under the occupation of the Assam Police since 2007 and the matter pending before the Supreme Court.
