An estimated 64.17% of the voters exercised their franchise in the byelection to the Atmakur Assembly seat on Thursday.
With the authorities putting in place tight three-tier security and safety measures to ward off Coronavirus, polling was by and large peaceful but for some sporadic incidents. The polling began on a modest note with only 11.56% of the 2.13 lakh voters turning up at the 279 polling stations, including 123 polling stations in the first two hours of polling.
The voting percentage steadily soared to 24.92% by 11 a.m., 44.14% by 1 p.m., 56.44% by 3 p.m. and 61.70% by 5 p.m., as people waited in long queues in several of the polling stations to vote, District Collector and District Election Officer K.V.N. Chakradhar Babu said while overseeing the conduct of the bypoll at a polling station at Karatampadu village along with Guntur range Deputy-Inspector General of Police C.M. Trivikram Varma and Superintendent of Police Ch. Vijaya Rao.
