Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj has refuted attributions that the spurt in polling percentage after 5 p.m. during Assembly elections on November 30 was due to heavy bogus voting.
Addressing a media conference on Friday, Mr. Vikas Raj clarified that in several polling stations, voting continued up to 9.30 p.m., leading to spurt in polling percentage.
In 13 constituencies impacted by left wing extremism, polling was wrapped up by 4 p.m., and in the remaining continued up to 5 p.m. Those who arrived at the polling station by 5 p.m. were allowed to exercise their franchise due to which polling extended up to 9.30 p.m., he explained in response to a question.
After the polling parties arrived at the reception centres, preliminary scrutiny was done by the Returning Officers, before sending the EVMs to the strong rooms.
As per the updated figure at 7.30 p.m. on Friday, the polling percentage for Telangana was 71.34% and that of Hyderabad, 47.88%.
Mr. Vikas Raj further said the scuffle between the Andhra Pradesh and the Telangana governments for control of Nagarjunasagar Dam had nothing to do with elections.
A record number of 13,000 cases have been filed with regard to enforcement of Model Code of Conduct this elections, he said. There has been marked increase in the postal ballot, with 16,005 senior citizens above 80 and 9,459 persons with disabilities using it, apart from 1.8 lakh government employees.
Answering a question on complaints about rigging in Chandrayangutta and other constituencies, Mr. Raj said observers and returning officers are watching the webcasting and CCTV camera footages of the polling stations concerned.
Barring a few exceptions, the polling had been largely uneventful, he said. The highest polled constituency was Munugode, with 91.89% while the Yakutpura was the lowest polled at 39.64%. Special focus this elections was on setting up polling stations in habitations of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups. As a result, seven polling stations had less than 50 voters, and four of them had less than 25 voters. A polling station in Devarkadra had the lowest number of eight voters.
He said the strong rooms will be monitored continuously through 40 companies of Central forces, and CCTV cameras. Three layers of security is provided at the strong rooms respectively by Central forces, State armed reserve forces and the State police.
Speaking of the arrangements for the counting day on December 3, Mr. Raj said there will be a total 33 counting centres across the State. A total 1,766 counting tables are being set up, apart from 131 tables for ROs and postal ballots.
Two sets of 14 tables each will be set up for counting the votes of six constituencies with more than 500 polling stations, while all other constituencies will have a set of 14 tables each.
As there are large number of contestants in many constituencies, counting may take more time, he said. Votes of each candidate will be tabulated in every round of counting, with postal ballot taking precedence over EVMs. Each table will have one micro observer, one counting supervisor and two assistants.
