The Hindu : EC satisfied with voter turnout

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 17, 2002

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Other States - Jammu & Kashmir

EC satisfied with voter turnout

By J. Venkatesan

Polling agents engaged in a scuffle at a booth in Handwara, during the first phase of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly election on Monday. — Photo: Nissar Ahmad

NEW DELHI Sept. 16. The Election Commission today said that barring minor incidents, the first phase of polling in Jammu and Kashmir for the 23 Assembly constituencies went off peacefully and an approximate 44 per cent of the 14.89 lakh voters exercised their franchise.

Briefing presspersons, the Deputy Election Commissioner, Sayan Chatterjee said, "taking all factors into consideration and the arrangements made for the polls, we are satisfied with the turnout in the first phase. We are now focussing on the second phase to be held on September 24.''

Giving the district-wise figures, he said in Poonch it was 48 per cent; Rajouri 47 per cent; Kargil 67 per cent; Baramullah 37 per cent and Kupwara 40 per cent. But in Sopore in Baramulla, only three to five per cent of the electorate cast their votes.

On incidents of violence, he said there was a blast around 11.45 a.m. outside a polling station in Shelal constituency and another in Kupwara. But polling was not affected.

Asked whether there was any attempt of booth-capturing, he said in Mendhar constituency some miscreants had damaged the electronic voting machines (EVM) and re-polling had been ordered. Asked whether the Kashmir migrants voted, he said in Delhi out of the 55 persons registered, 14 had voted. In Jammu, out of the 4,189 persons registered, 1,643 voted and in Udampur out of the 321 registered, 135 voted through the EVMs. About the role of the 16 foreign diplomats, he said they were here to witness the polls and were satisfied.

Meanwhile the Commission has announced that it had provided more than 600 passes to the mediapersons covering the polls and 358 passes were provided to the Chief Electoral Officer. Of this 72 were issued to the mediapersons in Jammu region alone. Initially some delay was reported in receipt of election card to the mediapersons in Jammu, to avoid that later passes were directly delivered. Delhi-based media and foreign journalists were issued 260 passes so far through the Press Information Bureau.

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