Bihar Records 53.5% Polling In First Phase Of Elections

Bihar recorded a 53.54 per cent polling in the first phase of assembly polls on Wednesday, according to a release by the Chief Electoral Officer Bihar.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora earlier addressed a press conference here and said the final figures will come later on the basis of all the votes cast by the electorate.

“Till 5 pm the voter turnout in Bihar phase one election was 52.24 per cent. In 2015 elections, Phase one turnout was 54.94 per cent and in Lok Sabha elections it was 53.54 per cent. The voting is still underway in some places and the final figures will be out soon,” Arora said.

The CEC said 12 out of the 16 districts where polling was held are affected by left Wing Extremism (LWE).

He said that the polling time had to be extended in 12 polling stations owing to the late start of the process.

He thanked the voters, political parties and the local administration for the smooth conduct of elections.

“I thank the voters of Bihar who came out to vote in these times, all political entities who showed maturity in the conduct of elections and the local administration which made such extensive arrangements keeping COVID-19 in mind,” Arora said.

The CEC said that it was important to conduct free, fair, and safe elections.

He also urged the voters to turn up in even greater numbers in phase two and three of the elections to choose the government they wanted in the state.

Deputy Election Commissioner Sudeep Jain that the overall functioning of the EVMs had been very satisfactory today barring some problems in the Jamui constituency.

“The failure today has been only 0.22 pc in the ballot units. From 41,689 ballot units, only 0.22 pc had to be replaced. It was 0.25 pc in the control units among the 31,371 control units and 1.28 per cent of VVPATs had to be replaced out of 31,371,” he said.

“At Jamui, due to longer time taken for replacement in 12 polling stations the polling time had to be extended to 7 pm. Apart from this, no other complaints of any kind were received with respect to working of EVMs and VVPATs,” he added.

Eighty-nine cases of violations were registered under sections of IPC and NDMA Act related to violation of COVID-19 norms in the first phase of polls, another official said. (ANI)