Statesman News Service
MALDA, Jan. 5: The Sujapur by-poll in Malda today recorded a 80.70 per cent voter turnout till 5 p.m. The polling was held amid tight security arrangements under Central forces and passed off peacefully.
The Malda district magistrate Mr Sridhar Ghosh, said poll percentage may go up after the final round of casting. “Polling is going on peacefully. No untoward incident was reported from any polling station. Many people are still waiting to cast their votes and so the poll percentage is likely to go up,” he said.
Two EVMs in two polling stations stopped functioning and were replaced. At Nawda Jadupur, booth no. 57, voters expressed grievance after the presiding officer refused to issue ‘slips’ to them. The district election officials, including the district magistrate, instructed sector officers to guide the presiding officers in issuing slips so that voters who were in a queue could vote. The DM also asked election officials to find out those absent from poll duty.
“We have decided to lodge FIRs against the absentees including presiding officers and first polling officers who did not carry out the order to join election duty,” the DM, said. Primarily election officials detected that 40 presiding officers and 35 first polling officers remained absent from their duty.
At booth no 88 in Jamirghata village an altercation broke out between officials and CPI-M workers when the CPI-M candidate Mr Ketabuddin Sheikh was prevented from entering the polling station.
No comments:
Post a Comment