Agartala (Tripura) [India], April 24 : More than 11,000 voters who had enrolled in the electoral rolls of the East Tripura parliamentary constituency have exercised their franchise through various special voting procedures ahead of the poll day on April 26, a senior official said on Wednesday.
The vocal campaign for the politically crucial ST reserved constituency came to an end on Wednesday.
"They are among the 13.96 lakh eligible voters who are supposed to cast their votes in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections, scheduled on April 26," Chief Electoral Officer Puneet Agarwal said while speaking to media persons.
Sharing details of the poll preparedness, Agarwal said, "On April 17th and 18th, home voting for persons with disabilities and those aged 85 and older was conducted. In this process, 4,515 voters have cast their valuable votes. Apart from that, 165 people voted under the essential services category, and 6,379 voters cast their votes through postal ballots. In all of these cases, more than 94 per cent casting is achieved."
"As far as the service voters are concerned, who are employed with the armed forces, 353 votes have been received by post," he added.
The total ballots issued under this category stand at 4,682.
He further said that the rest of the ballots would be received through postal services until the date of counting. Only those many such votes would be judged valid that are received before 8 am on the day of counting.
"The total number of eligible voters in the East Tripura parliamentary constituency stands at 13,96,761," he said.
On the newly enrolled Bru voters who will be exercising their voting rights for the second time in Tripura," Agarwal said, "The total number of Bru voters in the state stands at 17,524. A total of 16,300 voters will cast their votes in the second phase while the others already voted in the first phase."
The number of polling stations for the East Tripura is 1,664. As many as 444 stations among them are considered to be sensitive and critical.
"Besides, an adequate number of central armed forces would be deployed in the polling stations. Section 144 was already promulgated, and liquor shops shall remain closed all over the state for two days to make sure that the polls could be conducted without any hassle," added the CEO.
On the complaints, he said, "As many as 85 complaints were received so far, out of which 79 complaints have been disposed of, and inquiry is underway for six. If we take East Tripura in specific, a total of 18 complaints were received, out of which 14 have been resolved already, and four complaints are being looked into by the concerned officials."
"In some polling stations, more than 100 per cent of polling was recorded during the first phase of polls," the state CEO said.
"It has happened because of the EDC voters. Election Duty Certificates were issued to a significant number of officials. They were enabled to cast their votes in any of the polling stations out of their constituency. The polling stations where more than 100 per cent of polling is recorded were located close to the SDM offices where reserved polling personnel were kept waiting. This is why they have voted in those polling stations out of their free will," he said.