The Hindu : Front Page : Over 61 per cent vote in third phase of elections in State

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Friday, May 23, 2008
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Over 61 per cent vote in third phase of elections in State

Special Correspondent

Peaceful polling held in 69 constituencies in eight districts

In line: Voters queuing outside a polling booth in Jewargi town in Gulbarga district.

Bangalore: Polling in 69 of the 224 Assembly constituencies in the State was by and large peaceful.

With the conclusion of polling, the Chief Electoral Officer, M.N. Vidyashankar, announced the schedule for counting of votes. The election results for all the constituencies are expected to be announced latest by 3 p.m. on Sunday while the preliminary results will be made available by 11 a.m. The counting of votes will commence at 8 a.m. under the overall supervision of a Union Government official for every constituency.

The third phase recorded average polling of 61.3 per cent in the eight districts.

Nearly 25 per cent of the people cast their vote in the first three hours. The polling percentage of the first two phases was higher with the first phase recording 66 per cent and the second phase 67.5 per cent compared to the total of 65 per cent recorded in the 2004 elections.

Bagalkot and Dharwad districts recorded 65 per cent turnout each followed by Haveri and Gadag districts with 63 per cent each, Belgaum with 62 per cent, Gulbarga with 60 per cent and Bijapur and Bidar with 57 per cent each.

The political future of 415 candidates from 20 political parties and 284 independents will be decided in the third phase in which more than 1.18 crore voters were eligible to exercise their franchise. The major political parties — Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, and Janata Dal (Secular) — had fielded candidates in all the constituencies.

The BJP had done extremely well in the predominantly Lingayat belt in 2004 at the cost of the Congress. Polling will decide the fate of the Congress’ Chief Ministerial aspirants Mallikarjun Kharge, N. Dharam Singh and H.K. Patil as well as the president of the State unit of the Janata Dal (S), Merajuddin Patel. There are 12 former Ministers in the fray.

Mr. Vidyashankar said that at Attikatti polling booth (number 180) in Ron constituency in Gadag district all 832 eligible voters boycotted polling to protest against the denial of gram panchayat status to their village. The Deputy Commissioner visited the village and requested the voters to exercise their franchise but they did not oblige.

EVMs malfunction

Polling was disrupted for some time following failure of 33 electronic voting machines in Dharwad, Bagalkot, Bijapur and Bidar districts. However, the machines were set right and voting took place peacefully, Mr. Vidyashankar said.

Since the commencement of campaigning last month, the police have registered 2,450 criminal cases against leaders and workers of various political parties in connection with violation of the code of conduct, Mr. Vidyashankar said.

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