People wait in a queue to cast their votes during the Nilambur Assembly by-election, at GMLP School, in Malappuram district.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Bypolls to five seats in four states on Thursday saw webcasting the process from all 1,354 but one polling station, voters being provided with mobile deposit facility and faster updation on Voter Turnout App. The polling in the seats were between 51.33 per cent and 73.26 per cent in these seats.
The bypolls were conducted in Kadi and Visavadar in Gujarat, Nilambur in Kerala, Ludhiana West in Punjab and Kaliganj in West Bengal. Ludhiana West polled the least -- 51.33 per cent -- as per provisional figures while the highest was in Nilambur at 73.26 per cent followed by 72.5 per cent in Kaliganj. Kadi saw 57.8 per cent and Visavadar had 55.72 per cent polling.
According to the Election Commission, there was webcasting from all polling stations except one to ensure constant vigil of the entire polling process.
The webcasting was monitored to ensure that critical activities were taking place smoothly and there was no violation of the poll process. Dedicated monitoring teams at Returning Officer, District Electoral Officer and Chief Electoral Officer levels kept a strict vigil on the poll proceedings, an EC statement said.
For the first time, it said, voters were able to avail the mobile deposit facility provided by the EC at the entrance of all polling stations.
"The measure is in recognition of the ubiquity of mobile phones in both urban and rural areas and the challenges faced by the voters particularly the senior citizens, women, and PwD electors as to where to leave their mobile phones before entering the polling station," the statement said.
Simple pigeonhole boxes or jute bags were provided at the entrance door of the polling stations where the voters deposited their mobile phones and volunteers were deployed at the polling stations to facilitate the process, it said.
The upgraded 'Voter Turnout' sharing process was also successfully implemented where the presiding officer of each polling station was able to directly enter voter turnout on the new ECINET App every two hours to reduce the time lag in the updation of the approximate polling trends.
POLLING %
Nilambur 70.76%
Kaliganj 69.85%
Kadi 54.59%
Visavadar 54.61%
Ludhiana Wet 49.07