Shillong/Tura, Oct 30: A voter turnout of 80.96% was recorded till 7 pm in the bypolls to three Assembly constituencies of Mawphlang, Mawryngkneng and Rajabala on Saturday.
The Chief Electoral Officer, FR Kharkongor said the by-polls in all the constituencies concluded smoothly.
He said the participation from senior citizens, first-timers and middle-aged voters was good. The first-time voters were given certificates.
COVID arrangements were in place and nodal health workers were placed in all polling stations to ensure that the COVID protocols were followed.
The by-polls passed off with negligible cases of malfunctioning of voting machines. Quick response teams immediately changed six VVPATs that developed technical glitches. Three of these were in Rajabala, two in Mawphlang and one in Mawryngkneng.
The by-elections were held across 168 polling stations for a total of 1,02,695 electors.
Kharkongor said an EVM malfunctioned at Lad Mawreng and election there continued till evening.
He said a report would be sought from the deputy commissioners on some polling stations that did not allegedly have COVID-related preparations.
The CEO said the focus of the Election Department has now shifted to the counting of votes from 8 a.m. on November 2. Because of the COVID situation, there will be seven tables per round and the counting centres will be the JN Stadium in Shillong and a building next to the SMELC Centre in Tura.
There will be three-layer security for the EVMs and it will be guarded by the CRPF and state police personnel.
During the counting, five VVPATs will be randomly selected for matching the votes cast.
Arrangements have also been made for frisking and checking during the day of counting and the winning candidates will be provided escort from the counting centres to their residences.
The new guidelines for the victory procession will also be shared by the Election Department.
The M3 variety of EVMs was used in the by-election and these have an in-built visual display and a battery life predictor. The machine goes back to factory mode if anyone tries to tamper with it.
Rajabala registered 90.63% voting, the highest among the three assembly seats that went for by-polls on Saturday. But the turnout in this constituency in the plain belt of the West Garo Hills district fell short of the 2018 mark by 3%.
The voting in two other constituencies in the East Khasi Hills district – Mawphlang and Mawryngkneng – averaged 75%.
No untoward incident was reported from the politically sensitive Rajabala, where the state police and central paramilitary forces were on high alert throughout the day of polling.
Election officials said the polling percentage will increase after the data from all the polling centres are collected, but it is unlikely to touch the 2018 figure of 93.46%.
“We expect the voting percentage to be higher than the 90.63 as of now. Some polling parties are still on their way and have not been able to give their final figure,” District Election Officer and Deputy Commissioner Ram Singh said.
Among the 58 polling stations that included 17 auxiliary polling stations, the highest turnout of 97.41% was recorded from Garodubi. Clashes between the supporters of Congress and NPP had broken out on the last day of campaigning at Garodubi. The house of village headman Hasan Ali, an NPP worker, was damaged in stone-pelting during the clash. The village had four polling stations, each registering more than 90% polling. At one of these, 640 out of 657 female voters cast their ballot to put the booth on the pedestal with 97.41% polling.
While the highest voting was recorded from the minority-dominated plain belt, the lowest was was from Masangpani (78.11%) and Chokchokia (79.07%) in the tribal-dominated hills.
There are 13,000 voters in the hill stretch of Rajabala and a sizeable number had previously backed Ashahel D. Shira, the current UDP candidate.