The Hindu : Front Page : 50-55% polling in first phase

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 21, 2004

Front Page

Front Page

50-55% polling in first phase

By J. Venkatesan

Voters being frisked by policemen as they queue up to cast their vote at Nediyan in the Hari Budha forest area of Poonch on Tuesday. — Photo: V.V. Krishnan

NEW DELHI, APRIL 20. Violence, booth-capturing and smashing of electronic voting machines marked the first phase of polling held for140 Lok Sabha seats in which an estimated 50-55 per cent of the 175 million voters exercised their franchise. The constituencies are spread over 13 States and three Union Territories.

Elections were also held for the Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Orissa Legislative Assemblies.

The Deputy Election Commissioner, A.N. Jha, told presspersons that polling was by and large peaceful, barring stray incidents of violence reported from seven States — Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur and in all 18 persons were killed.

Mr. Jha gave the break-up of the voter turnout (in per cent): about 55 in Andhra Pradesh, 60 in Assam, 55-60 in Bihar, 45-50 in Gujarat, 40 in Jammu and Kashmir, 55-60 in Karnataka, 40-45 in Maharashtra and 45-50 in Manipur.

He said the turnout was 50-55 per cent in Meghalaya, 55-60 in Mizoram, 50-55 in Orissa, 50 in Chhattisgarh, 45-50 in Jharkhand, 45-50 in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 65-70 in Dadra Nagar and Haveli and 60-65 in Daman and Diu. The percentages were only tentative.Mr Jha said that repolling, wherever necessary on account of booth capturing or smashing of the EVMs, would be held on April 22. A decision on the number of booths needing repolling would be decided tomorrow.

Six cases of disruption of polling by left-wing extremists were reported from Andhra Pradesh. Six EVMs were either taken away or snatched in separate incidents. In five cases, polling was stopped because of problems with the EVMs. In Karnataka, four incidents of group clashes took place — two each in Srinivaspura and the Assembly segments of the Kolar Lok Sabha constituency.

He said that in the Hazaribagh constituency in Bihar, where the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, was contesting, left-wing extremists attacked a polling booth following which the presiding officer ran away. In Kodarma, one EVM was damaged and taken away by militants. Polling was delayed at some places in Dhanbad and Bokaro because of defects in EVMs and these were replaced. Similarly, in Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Jammu and Kashmir, polling was disrupted in some booths because of violence or the snatching of the EVMs. However, by and large polling through EVMs was good.

In Assam, polling was obstructed in two booths in Kokrajar. In some places, there were attempts to damage EVMs. Three polling stations in Mangaldoi constituency were damaged. Large-scale obstructions by militants were reported from Manipur's Chandel and Senapati districts. In Manipur, repolling would be held in 103 polling stations. Despite a cyclonic storm, polling was normal in Mizoram. No untoward incidents were reported from Maharashtra, Daman and Diu, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Meghalaya. In Chhattisgarh, extremists in Bastar and Dantewala snatched 17 EVMs.

Polling was by and large peaceful in Gujarat. Attempts to capture a booth were reported from the Khera Parliamentary constituency and Junagarh.

`Exit polls are on'

The Commission today virtually ruled out imposing any ban on telecast or publication of the exit polls in between the first and last phase of elections. To a question whether the Commission was contemplating imposing a ban on the exit polls, Mr. Jha said, "the exit polls are on. We have not put any restrictions". He, however, said the Commission had sought legal opinion on whether a legislative course of action could be taken for regulating these polls.

It might be recalled that after the Commission asked the Government to bring an ordinance to ban exit polls, the Attorney-General, Soli Sorabjee, felt that such a ban would be unconstitutional and suggested that the Commission could bring in some regulations. But the Commission has put the ball back in the government's court for a decision in this regard.

Swamy's complaint

To a question, Mr. Jha said the Commission had sought a report from the CEO, Tamil Nadu on the Janata Party president, Subramanian Swamy's complaint against the AIADMK candidate, T.T.V. Dhinakaran, contesting from the Periakulam constituency alleging that Mr. Dhinakaran was holding a passport issued by another country and was therefore ineligible to contest the polls.

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