Guwahati, Apr 23(UNI) Over 80% polling has been recorded in the third and final phase Lok Sabha election in Assam today, with the final figure likely to go up further.
The average polling percentage till 2000 hours was 80.74% and the complete figure is expected to increase as reports from several polling stations were yet to be compiled, official sources said.
Dhubri constituency saw the highest turnout with 86.94% voting, while Kokrajhar had the lowest turnout with 77.38% voting.
Guwahati and Barpeta registered 80.20% and 78.11% polling respectively.
No incident of violence has been reported from any part so far.
In Dhubri, a polling officer was reportedly removed from duty following allegations of malpractice.
Malfunction of EVMs was reported from several places and officials rushed to fix the glitches, even as there was delay in start of polling or polling was interrupted in many places due to it.
A 60-year-old woman, suffering from hyper-tension, collapsed and died at a polling station in Ronjuli in Goalpara district.
She was rushed to a local hospital, where she was pronounced brought dead.
As many as 200 companies of security personnel had been deployed for the third phase, with minimum one constable in every polling station.
The fate of 54 candidates has been sealed in the EVMs with polling conducted in 9577 polling stations, including 147 all-women polling stations, 125 model polling stations and 524 remote polling stations.
Former PM Dr Manmohan Singh and his wife Gurcharan Kaur were among the voters in the third phase as the couple flew in from New Delhi to cast their vote under Guwahati Lok Sabha seat.
Among the candidates were two sitting MPs, a state Cabinet minister and an incumbent MLA.
There were nine women contenders, the highest number of women candidates in fray in a single phase in the three-phased polls in the state.
The number of polling personnel deployed for the final phase was 38,308, along with 436 micro observers, five general observers, four expenditure observers and three police observers.
Altogether 125 Flying Squad Teams, 112 Static Surveillance Teams and 83 Video Surveillance Teams were assigned for the phase.
The first two phases of voting for five constituencies each on April 11 and April 18 had recorded 78% and 81% polling respectively.
Counting of votes will be undertaken on May 23.
UNI SG AND