Agartala: Even as a large number of voters were seen in queues outside polling stations till late Thursday evening, several hours after polling was scheduled to have ended, the final count of the voting percentage could not cross the last election’s turnout of 89.8 percent.
While Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Kiran Gitte anticipated that the overall polling percentage would be over 92 percent, a report compiled by his office on Thursday midnight recorded the total voting percentage at 87.63 percent.
This figure, the CEO said, is expected to increase as postal ballot numbers will be added with the EVM figures to get the final turnout.
According to the statistics shared by the office of the CEO, 24,66,511 out of a little over 28 lakh voters had cast their votes till 2 am on Friday.
Of the total votes cast, 12,47,705 were female votes while 12,18,764 were males.
Meanwhile, 42 among the 62 eligible electors belonging to the third gender category exercised their franchise, taking the total voting turnout up to 87.63 percent.
The ballot paper votes, however, are yet to be incorporated with the EVM votes cast, an official of the CEO office said.
Earlier on Thursday evening, Chief Electoral Officer Kiran Gitte said, “Not only service voters, voters above 80 years of age and Persons with Disabilities have also applied for postal ballots. So, overall it may add up another 2.2 percent.”
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On poll related violence, the top official said, “Some incidents have been reported but in each of the cases stringent measures were initiated to ensure voters can cast their votes.”
IG (Crime) Tripura Police GS Rao said, “According to reports from various parts of the state, five FIRs were lodged in different police stations and six persons were reported to be injured. Some instances of people blocking, threatening and intimidating voters were reported and in all the cases action was taken.”
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