Itanagar, Apr 19 (UNI) More than 65 per cent electorate in Arunachal Pradesh have cast their votes till 5 pm in the simultaneous elections to the 18th Lok Sabha and the 11th State Legislative Assembly, according to the data available with the poll panel.
In the election for the two Parliamentary seats, around 64.20 per cent voters cast their votes, while in Assembly polls the voter turnout was recorded at 66.15 per cent, as per the Election Commission of India (ECI) data.
The polling is by and large peaceful, a senior official in the Nirvachan Bhavan here said, while adding that no untoward incident has been reported from any part of the state so far.
However, an incident of stone pelting between two political parties' supporters has occurred at Niausa in Longding district. A police team was rushed to the spot which dispersed the crowd, the state police nodal officer said, adding that cases were being registered.
A total of 8,92,694 electorate, including 4,54,256 female voters, are eligible to exercise their franchise to decide the fate of 133 candidates in the high-stake battle for the 50 Assembly seats and 14 contestants for two Parliamentary Constituencies across 2,226 polling booths in the State.
A statewide public holiday was declared on the day to enable the eligible voters to cast their votes.
Among the prominent leaders in the fray, sitting MP and Union Minister Kiren Rijiju is seeking re-election from the Arunachal West Parliamentary seat.
Former Congress Chief Minister Nabam Tuki, who left his traditional bastion Sagalee for BJP's Ratu Techi to get elected unopposed, is trying his fortune in the parliamentary polls, contesting against Rijiju for the second successive time.
Another former Chief Minister and a veteran leader Gegong Apang is also in the fray for the Nari-Koyu Assembly seat from the newly floated Arunachal Democratic Party.
Earlier, the polling started at 7 am amid tight security and continued till 5 pm without any break. However, reports suggest that the voting was continuing in some booths where long queues of voters were seen at the polling station premises.
Around 80 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), including India Reserve Battalion (IRBn) and State Police forces have been deployed for conducting free, fair and incident-free polls.
Arrangements for webcasting facility has been made in 1108 polling stations, out of which online webcasting is being done in 754 polling booths and offline recording in 354 others, Chief Electoral Officer Pawan Kumar Sain said.
Moreover, 615 micro observers were deployed for the polling, out of which 155 will stay put at the vulnerable polling stations and 417 in critical polling booths, Sain informed.
Out of the total of 2,226 polling stations, 150 polling booths are being managed by women officials. There are also 50 youth-managed polling stations across the state and three PwD-managed polling booths in Changlang, Longding and Aalo.
In Itanagar Assembly Constituency, which has already got its MLA elected uncontested, polling is being held for the Arunachal West Lok Sabha seat, being contested by eight candidates, including Union Minister and BJP nominee Kiren Rijiju and Congress’s Nabam Tuki.
At Itanagar's Niti Vihar Govt Middle School polling booth, voting started a bit late due to a technical snag in the voting machines which was later set right by experts, presiding officer Kago Omo said.
Polling is being held to elect 50 members of the State Assembly (as 10 members of the 60-member House have already been elected unopposed) and two Lok Sabha MPs.
Counting of votes for the assembly election will take place on June 2 - two days ahead of the declaration of Lok Sabha polls results.
UNI TD CS1837