26 officials suspended, around 1,700 voters boycott polling in East Tripura: Chief Election Officer

AGARTALA: The final turnout in the East Tripura parliamentary constituency reached its fag end on Friday night with a total voter turnout of 79.66 per cent till the last report.

The elections were conducted in as many as 1,664 polling stations across the East Tripura parliamentary constituency till 8 pm.

According to the Chief Electoral Officer Puneet Agarwal, the scrutiny of the EVMs will be conducted on Saturday which will eventually help the poll authorities to ascertain the final turnout which is expected to rise.

On being asked about the call for a poll boycott, Agarwal said, "In two polling stations, people boycotted the elections in display of their grievances. They were concerned about the decrepit condition of roads and the lack of development in their areas which is why they had boycotted the elections. As soon as the election commission came to know about the grievances of the locals, officials of the local areas tried to convince them but we also have to respect their decision."

He said that the polling happened peacefully in East Tripura and thanked voters who came to vote at the polling stations.

"The polling happened peacefully...The final turnout till 8 pm stood at 80.32 per cent in the East Tripura parliamentary constituency...I want to thank all the voters who came to vote at the polling stations...The elections were conducted in as many as 1,664 polling stations across the East Tripura parliamentary constituency," said Tripura Chief Electoral Officer.

Speaking about the total number of voters who didn't cast their votes in those specific polling stations, he said, "There are two polling stations registered as 41/3 Natonglal Para JB School and 44/5 Sandaimohan Para JB School. The total number of eligible voters for those polling stations is recorded to be 649 and 1,059 respectively. In 41/3 two votes were polled while in the other only 12 votes turned up to exercise their franchise."

On the complaints redressal, the senior poll official said, "A total of 92 complaints have been received and all of them are disposed of. In this process, 26 poll officials were suspended for violation of conduct rules."

Earlier in the morning, returning officer East Tripura Parliamentary Constituency Saju Vaheed said that all possible efforts have been put in place to ensure that voters can exercise their franchise. Apart from that, there are certain shadow areas for which wireless communication channels have been used for seamless connectivity.

"Polling is going very smoothly, we are monitoring it from the control room and whatever issues that we had related to EVMs we have already resolved that... In shadow areas, we are using radio and wireless communications. At 2-3 locations in shadow areas, there were some issues related to roads and to those places, the entire communication is being operated through Ham Radio and wireless communications," he said.