A total of 57.31 percent voter turnout was recorded across Jammu and Kashmir in the first phase of LokSabha elections on Thursday, chief electoral officer Shailendra Kumar said.
“For the Jammu-Poonch seat, 72.16 percent voters exercisedtheir democratic right to vote, while 34.61 percent voters cast their vote inthe Baramulla seat,” Kumar said, addressing a press conference here.
“Till last report came in and since we haven’t seen Form17-C yet, the total voting percentage for Jammu constituency was 72.16 while itstood at 34.61 for Baramulla seat. After examining Form 17-C, we would be ableto provide the exact figures. But this figure will be very close to the finalpercentage,” he said.
Polling was held in four districts in the Jammu-PoonchLokSabhaseat.
“74.5 percent votes were polled in Jammu district, 75.74percent in Samba, 65.73 percent in Rajouri and 70.42 percent in Poonch,” Kumarsaid.
For the Baramulla seat, polling was held in three districts,including Baramulla, Kupwara and Bandipora.
“51.7 percent people cast their vote in Kupwara district, 24percent in Baramulla and 31.8 percent in Bandipora,” he said.
Providing details about Kashmiri migrant voters, the CEOsaid: “4098 Form-M were issued and of these, 54 percent migrants cast theirvote”.
Replying to an allegation of EVM rigging in Poonch district,the CEO said: “As soon as we received the complaint, we replaced all EVMs,VVPATs and other allied machinery. After that, we did not receive any complaintand the polling went on normally”.
Replying to another question about some people from Narwalalleging that their names had been “removed from the voter list without theirconsent”, Kumar said: “Voter names are only deleted if someone files anapplication for deletion of the same or if a similar entry (name, photographand address) is found. People should check if their names are registered in adifferent polling constituency or station. If anyone has an issue, he shouldcome to me with details and facts”.
About an altercation between security forces with the peoplein Poonch during the course of polling, inspector general of police, Jammu, M KSinha—who accompanied Kumar—said, “We received information about thealtercation, but the matter was resolved. It was a minor incident. No formalcomplaint was lodged with the police regarding it.”
Pertinently, during the first phase of parliamentary polls,voting took place in two out of six constituencies, including Jammu-Poonch seatin Jammu division and Baramulla seat in Kashmir division.
“Both the constituencies were of general category and notreserved. The total number of voters was 33,17,882, among which 16,00,897 werewomen,” the CEO said.
He said the polling was “very peaceful” in Jammu as well asin Kashmir division.
“It was incident-free polling and we congratulate allpolitical leaders, parties, voters, officials, police and paramilitary forcesfor smooth conduct of elections on Thursday,” he said.
4489 polling stations had been set up in the twoconstituencies, excluding 21 stations for migrants, the CEO said.
“Among these stations, webcasting was done at 484,” he said.
Kumar was also flanked by divisional commissioner, Jammu,Sanjeev Vera and district election officer, Jammu, Ramesh Kumar.
The CEO said there were 33 candidates in fray for the twoconstituencies, including 24 for Jammu-Poonch and nine for Baramulla seat. Hesaid the polling was held under the supervision of 12 general observers, eightexpenditure observers and seven police observers.
462 micro-observers, 7692 staff was deployed across 4489polling stations in the two constituencies on the poll day, he said.