Barring a few incidents of clashes between the activists of different political parties, the polling for general elections went off peacefully in East Godavari district on Thursday.
Over 74.21% of the 42.04 lakh electors exercised their vote by 6 p.m. Barring the Rampachodavaram Assembly segment, polling continued for a couple of hours beyond the scheduled time at 261 polling stations located in the remaining 18 Assembly segments.
At Rampachodavaram, the polling was completed by 4 p.m. and personnel deployed to the Maoist-affected Gurthedu, Daragandi, Pathakota and Boddagandi polling stations were airlifted to the district headquarters in special helicopters and the EVMs were stored in a strong room.
The segment registered a voter turnout of 59%.
Technical snags
The polling began at 7 a.m. at all the 4,581 polling stations in the district and complaints of technical glitches in the EVMs and VVPATs were reported from a good number of centres in the morning hours. Defunct machines have been replaced with new ones by the officials concerned. The replacement, however, proved time taking, forcing the voters to wait for their turn in the long queues.
Pamphlets found
Group clashes were reported at Amalapuram, Razole and Pithapuram Assembly segments, where the police intervened to dispel the warring groups. The police spotted pamphlets near Mallampeta and Narsingapeta hamlets of Pega panchayat in Chintooru, which were suspected to be left by the Maoists, as the content of the pamphlets was an advice to the voters to stay away from the ‘bogus’ elections. The Chinturu police were investigating the matter.
Transport arranged
Transportation was arranged for the physically-challenged voters and special assistance was provided to the visually-challenged and the elderly voters in the polling booths.
Collector Kartikeya Misra and Superintendent of Police Vishal Gunni were monitoring the poll process.