Turnout in the third and final phase of polling in the Bihar Assembly elections on Saturday was over 57%, according to the Election Commission of India.
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Deputy Election Commissioner (DEC) in-charge of Bihar Chandra Bhushan Kumar said the polling percentage had been 55.22% as he was speaking at the EC’s press conference and that the number was likely to increase.
Polling officers collect Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and other materials before leaving for their election duty, ahead of the third and last leg of Bihar Assembly polls, in Muzaffarpur district.
As of 8 p.m., the EC’s live turnout portal showed the polling percentage at 57.27%.
Turnout in the Lok Sabha by-election for the Valmiki Nagar seat in Bihar and the Assembly by-elections in Manipur were 56.02% and 91.54% respectively as of 8.10 pm.
Speaking at the press conference, EC secretary general Umesh Sinha said Bihar had witnessed “enthusiastic polling” in the three phases on October 28, Tuesday and Saturday, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr. Kumar said 52,000 senior citizens over the age of 80 and persons with disabilities had opted to vote from home, an option that was extended to them due to the pandemic. He said election officials in Bihar had conducted drives to enrol over 2.30 lakh migrants who had returned during the pandemic.
During campaigning for the three phases, 876 violations of the Model Code of Conduct and 156 violations of COVID-19 safety norms were seen, he said. Seizures of ₹66.84 crore were made, which were many times higher than previous elections, he said.
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In the third phase, DEC Sudeep Jain said 0.45% of ballot units, 0.49% of control units and 1.83% of VVPATs were replaced. DEC Ashish Kundra added that a total of about 3,000 complaints of Model Code of Conduct violations had been lodged via the C-Vigil app during the Bihar elections and by-polls in various States, of which 682 were from Bihar and 1,668 were from Madhya Pradesh.
