Bhubaneswar: About 62.46 percent of the total 99.61 lakh voters have exercised their franchise till 5 PM in the final phase of the election to six Lok Sabha and 42 Assembly seats in the State today.
Polling is underway from 7 AM in Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur Lok Sabha Constituencies and 42 Assembly constituencies.
Till 5 PM, highest 65.93 percent polling reported from Jagatsinghpur MP segment, followed by Mayurbhanj (64.17%), Jajpur (62.92%), Kendrapara (62.02%), Balasore (61.91%) and Bhadrak (58.21%).
Similarly, Jashipur Assembly constituency in Mayurbhanj district recorded 70.11 percent while Dhamnagar reported lowest polling of 53.40 percent.
The polling, which started at 7 AM, was delayed at several places due to glitches in the EVMs leading to large-scale discontent among the voters but picked up after the error was rectified. Odisha Chief Electoral Officer N B Dhal said the glitching in EVMs was not a serious problem.
The EVMs were replaced quickly whenever a complaint was received and the polling was going on smoothly. He said till 1330 hours, 129 Ballot Units ,189 Control Units and 515 VVPAT have been replaced which is less than the EVMs replaced during the last phase of election.
The number of EVMs which malfunctioned was not unusually high, the CEO said. Dhal said barring some disturbances outside the polling booths in some places, the polling was by and large peaceful.
“We have promptly responded to any disturbances and alerted the District Collector and the Superintendent of police. We have a well established webcasting control system and deployed 126 companies of CAPF in comparison to 44 companies deployed during the last elections in the State,” the CEO said.
There were reports of tension after a clash between supporters of two political parties from Salipur, Dhamnagar, Puri, Bari and Pattamundai Assembly constituencies.
Sources said one BJP agent and two workers were injured during a clash with ruling BJD supporters at Malsasan booths number 184 and 185 under Salepur Assembly seat. BJP Salepur candidate Arindam Roy alleged that the BJD workers carrying lethal weapons attacked the BJP workers and indulged in booth rigging.
Around 36,000 security personnel including 126 companies of central armed police force (CAPF) and 86 platoons of Odisha armed police and 20,500 civil police personnel have been deployed for this phase of poll.