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67.03 pc turnout in Meghalaya

By Staff Correspondent

SHILLONG, April 11 - Except an incident of �misconduct� by the BJP candidate, polling was held peacefully in the two Lok Sabha seats in Meghalaya, Shillong and Tura, in which 67.03 per cent electorates cast their votes, out of the 19.14 lakh eligible voters.

With this, the fate of nine candidates, Vincent H Pala (Cong), Sanbor Shullai BJP, Jemino Mawthoh UDP and three independents, have been sealed for the Shillong seat. In Tura, the candidates are Agatha Sangma of NPP, Mukul Sangma (Congress) and Rikman G Momin (BJP).

According to Election department, this percentage has been collated from 2,500 polling stations, out of the 3,167 and the department expects the figure to go up once the voting information is received from the 600-odd polling stations.

Out of this total polling percentage, Shillong recorded 63.56 per cent and Tura 75.60 per cent. In Selsella Assembly byelection, which was held simultaneously, the voting percentage was 82.

Kharkongor said that in terms of �voters� volume� close to 13 lakh voters have exercised their franchise, which is higher than the 2014 Parliamentary election. �In 2014 over 10 lakh voters had cast their votes and the overall percentage was 68 per cent,� he added.

Although the Election department had anticipated a peaceful polling like in other elections, there were concerns about the weather as the Met department had forecast rain in the State, but the weather held up.

Meanwhile, in an �unforeseen incident�, an FIR was filed against BJP candidate, Sanbor Shullai for holding a press briefing inside one of the polling stations and subsequent �misconduct� with the poll officials.

The Returning Officer, Abhishek Bhagotia has filed an FIR against the BJP candidate under section 132 Representation of People�s Act after receiving inputs about the misconduct.

In the morning, voting started briskly with people lining up early in different polling stations in the State. Reports came in that people lined up as early as 6.30 am in some polling stations in different parts of the State.

Across the two constituencies the voting pattern was similar with people casting their votes early and by 9.30 am the voting percentage in the State went past 20 percent.

The voting percentage reached 27 per cent by 11 am and by 12 pm, 34.20 per cent of the electorates had cast their votes for the Shillong seat and 35.78 for the Tura seat.

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