Guwahati: At least 68 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise on the first phase of Lok Sabha polling in five constituencies in Assam on Thursday, a top election official said.
The polling percentage is likely to increase further as hundreds of people are still in the queue at the end of 5 pm.
Chief Electoral Officer Mukesh Chandra Sahu told PTI that as per latest information 68 per cent of the voters have cast their votes in five constituencies.
“This voting percentage will go up further as many people are still in the queue. Those who entered the polling centres by 5 pm will be allowed to vote,” he added. Sahu informed that there were reports of malfunctioning of EVMs from some booths and defective machines have been replaced.
Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Kaliabor, Tezpur and Lakhimpur Lok Sabha constituencies have an electorate of 76,03,458, including 38,65,334 males, 37,37,970 females and 154 of the third gender, who will decide the fate of 41 candidates.
Jorhat has recorded the highest of 72 per cent polling till 5 pm, followed by Tezpur with 70 per cent and Dibrugarh with 69 per cent.
Kaliabor and Lakhimpur recorded 64 and 62 per cent respectively. Voting took place across 9,574 election booths, manned by over 42,000 polling personnel and 180 companies of Central security forces and the state.
Most of the 225 model polling stations have been decorated with balloons and flowers, while the first voter was offered the traditional Assamese ‘gamocha’.
Among the prominent people to cast their votes in the first half of the day was Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal at 153 Sahityarathi Lakshminath Bezbaroa Sahitya Sabha Bhavan in Dibrugarh and former CM Tarun Gogoi along with his wife Dolly and son Gaurav, who is the sitting MP and contesting Congress candidate from Kaliabor.
Lakhimpur Congress candidate Anil Borgohain was the first to cast his ballot at an all-woman polling booth, while his BJP rival and sitting MP Pradan Barua exercised his franchise at Dhemaji.
While the first phase of the three-phase voting for 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam is taking place on Thursday, the second and third phases will happen on April 18 and 23, while the counting of votes will be on May 23 after completion of the entire seven-phase voting across the country. (PTI)
