Around seventy-five percent of more than 2.5 million voters in Tripura cast their votes for the election of a new assembly on Sunday. The state is being ruled by the Left and this election is important as it will show the mood of the voters for the next year Lok Sabha election. The Election Commission personnel said that there was an enthusiasm among the voters to exercise their right as they lined up at election booth even before the voting started at 7 am.
The candidates are contesting for fifty-nine assembly constituencies as more than 75% voters exercised their franchise. Even in the night at 10 pm, the voting was continued on more than twenty booths. The reason for being late was the malfunctioning of electronic voting machines at some booths. People were queuing up before 7 am but voting started at around 10 am. As the voting started and the turnout was more, it continued well past its original scheduled time of 4 pm. The number of voters increased significantly in the afternoon as only 22% people had voted in the morning and in the evening, it shot up to 75%.
Additional Election Commissioner, Sudeep Jain told the press that most of the complaints about the EVM were not genuine. He said that 12 ballot units and more than 95 voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) were replaced by other units. These were very less than what is replaced in normal elections and this was a common thing and not to worry about.
According to the sources, the elections went smoothly as no violence was reported and at one place there were two crude bombs found which were quickly disposed of. For the 59 seats, there are total 292 candidates contesting and it included 23 women candidates. The results will be declared after the counting of votes on 3rd March. Around Tripura, more than 75% of voters had cast their vote before 5 pm. According to one Election Department official, a large number of people were still in the line long after 4 pm.
The voter turnout in the state has always been higher as in 2013 assembly polls, there was an outstanding 92% voter turnout. The candidates and their supporters were angry because of the buggy EVMs and VVPATs. The voting was successful as there were no reported incidents of violence and a large number of women also participated in the democratic festival. According to rules, the voters who were present in the complex before 4 pm were allowed to cast their vote no matter what time it is.
The delay in the scheduled time was because of the snags in the machine and party candidates were not happy about this. Biplab Kumar Deb, BJP Chief from Tripura said that the delay has caused a slight impact as the voters had to wait till night to cast their voted which was to be over by 4 pm.
