Glitches in the functioning of electronic voting machines in the initial hours of polling did not dampen the spirits of voters in Kozhikode Lok Sabha constituency on Tuesday as they turned up in large numbers to exercise their franchise.
According to the latest information, the polling percentage recorded in the constituency is 79.39. The figure is expected to go up as polling had been completed only in over 70% of the total number of polling booths in Kozhikode district. In the 2014 elections, the polling percentage in Kozhikode Lok Sabha constituency was 79.8. The highest polling was recorded in Kunnamangalam Assembly segment at 81.45%. It was followed by Koduvally Assembly segment, considered a stronghold of the Indian Union Muslim League, at 80.75%. In Balussery, it was 80.19%, Beypore 78.22%, Kozhikode North 78.01%, Elathur 77.99%, and Kozhikode South 77.20%.
Just an hour after the poll process began, the polling percentage was recorded as 4.66 in Kozhikode. The highest was in Koduvally Assembly constituency, at 6%. At many polling stations, women and millennial voters were seen in large numbers. Senior citizens and differently abled too turned up at many polling booths. Voters were spared of the scorching summer heat on the polling day as many parts of the constituency had received rains late in the night the previous day.
At sensitive booths such as those set up at the Government Fisheries Lower Primary School, Marad, personnel from the Central Industrial Security Force were deployed.
Technical issues
The polling was delayed by half an an-hour owing to technical problems in a booth at Mathrubandhu Upper Primary School near Civil Station where the United Democratic Front candidate M.K. Raghavan is a voter. By 10 a.m., the polling percentage was over 18, which shot up to around 40 by noon. At 6 p.m. when the polling process was officially wound up, hundreds were seen waiting outside polling stations.
There were heated arguments between voters and poll officials at a booth in Kayanna in Balussery Assembly constituency after it was alleged that the polling was delayed by three hours because of faulty EVM. At the Government Upper Primary School, Naduvattam in Beypre, the polling was delayed by around an hour.