Around 34 percent of voters exercised their franchise in Bye-elections of Anantnag Assembly Segment which concluded this evening peacefully.Addressing a Press Conference, Chief Electoral officer (CEO) Mr. Shantmau said that out of total 84067 electors including 4229 migrants voters a total of 28446 cast their votes during the polling period which started at 7 a.m and concluded at 6 p.m. He said that out of 42840 male voters and 41227 female voters, 15384 male, 13062 female and 638 migrant voters exercised their franchise in the Bye-elections of Anantnag Assembly segment.Mr. Shantmanu said that 13 polling booths were also set up at Jammu for migrant voters, one each at Udhampur and Delhi, adding that 3 additional Observers were also deployed for these three locations.The Chief Electoral Officer said the Election Commission of India had deployed 4 Observers including two General Observers, one Expenditure Observer and one Police and Security Observer for monitoring. He said 118 EVMs were used for the polling on 117 polling booths, saying that one EVM was replaced at Gangyal Jammu before start of poll as it developed technical snag. He said 582 personnel were detailed for election duty.
Mr. Shantmanu said that 102 polling booths were setup at 61 designated locations which included 52 hypersensitive and 50 sensitive polling stations. He said that 8 candidates were in fray for the constituency. He said that 20 polling stations were set up as model polling stations equipped with necessary facilities. He said 77 Micro Observers were deployed on the booths to ensure free and fair polls. He said that webcasting facility at 20 polling booths and videography at 5 polling booths was also available to cover the poll process. He said that the postal ballots were also dispatched to migrants, service voters and detainees and under trials at different places. About 93 per cent voter slips were distributed among the voters, he added.The CEO said the polling was held in a peaceful atmosphere and so far no case of violation and untoward incident was reported from any part of the constituency.Counting of votes shall be held on June 25 at 8 a.m.Expressing his gratitude to the police and civil administration, Central Security forces and Media for extending their help for conducting smooth, free, fair and incident free Bye-polls. He also thanked political parties for cooperation in the poll process. Among others, IGP, Kashmir, SJM Gillani and Director Information and Public Relations Mr. Zubair Ahmad was also present.