The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Medak constituency records highest polling percentage

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Friday, Apr 17, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Medak constituency records highest polling percentage

M. Malleswara Rao

HYDERABAD: Medak constituency, where film actor Vijayashanti is a candidate for the Parliamentary seat, reported highest polling percentage of 75 and Hyderabad Parliamentary constituency a low at 54 per cent, indicating continued indifference of the educated to voting.

Polling in the first phase of elections in 14 districts of Andhra Pradesh, covering 22 Parliamentary and 154 Assembly constituencies on Thursday ended on a peaceful note, barring minor incidents of scuffles among the followers of rival political parties.

Also, polling for the first time was devoid of any incident caused by naxalites who, indeed, gave call for boycott of the elections.

Beerpur, native village of top Maoist leader Muppala Lakshman Rao (Ganapati), reported over 64 per cent polling. Over 68 per cent of the 3.12 crore voters of this phase exercised their franchise, almost tallying with that of the first phase of the 2004 elections covering the same areas — 67.96 per cent.

Shorter duration

This was in spite of the polling duration being cut short by an hour to end at 4 p.m. (from 7 a.m.) to facilitate the transportation of election officials with electronic voting machines (EVM) and other material from inaccessible places in Visakhapatnam and Khammam districts to the constituency headquarters before nightfall by helicopters.

The polling, however, had to be extended by five hours as there were long queues of voters at 400 polling stations at the end of polling.

The turnout at the booths which was dull in the morning, however, picked up by afternoon at a number of places. Polling could not be held in 14 polling stations at Ieeja in Nagarkurnool Lok Sabha constituency in Mahabubnagar district following destruction of EVMs by irate villagers, and at five other booths in Karimnagar, Srikakulam, Khammam and Hyderabad districts where the machines developed snags.

The villagers boycotted polls and ransacked the booths as a protest against shifting of their village to a different constituency under delimitation.

A decision for a repoll at these 19 booths on Saturday would be taken on Friday based on the reports of the presiding officers and the micro-observers, said Chief Electoral Officer I. V. Subba Rao.

The CEO said this was also the first polling in the State devoid of a single complaint of rigging.

On the complaint made by the CPI that Home Minister K. Jana Reddy had indulged in large-scale rigging in Nagarjunasagar Assembly constituency where he is a candidate, the CEO said: “We will look into this and take action.”

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