AGARTALA, Feb 18 - As usual, Tripura which has always had a tradition of registering a massive turnout (93 per cent in 2013 Assembly elections) in polls, today registered heavy polling of over 80 per cent in a peaceful electoral process on Sunday.
However, long queues were seen in several polling booths even after 5 pm, an hour after expiry of the stipulated polling time of 4 pm due to technical snags in several EVMs.
�Those who lined up in the queue before 4 pm, will get a chance to exercise their democratic right till late night as we have already passed necessary instruction to all the presiding officers to continue polling session till the end�, CEO Sriram Tarinikanti told the media here.
�ECIL engineers who are stationed in different constituencies have either changed faulty EVMs or removed fault to ensure smooth polling process�, he said.
The CEO said there was no report of any untoward incident in any part of the State during the polling process, which is a massive success for the State Election department as well as security forces.
Reports reaching here from polling booths confirmed there were long queues in several polling stations as the pace of voting was badly affected due to technical snag of EVMs. Around 500 EVMs had developed malfunction delaying the polling process.
In the first two hours of polling, an average of 11 per cent voting was recorded in all 59 Assembly constituencies and later it gained momentum. However, it was malfunctioning of EVMs that resulted in tardy pace of polling. At 5 pm, an average of 74 per cent polling was recorded by the State Election department.
If the present trend continues, the polling will be a little above 80 per cent which will be less than what the State polled in 2013 Assembly elections.
In Tripura, shifting of one per cent votes makes a sea change in the political arithmetic because number of voters is less compared to any mainland States. The CPI(M) led Left Front had won 41 seats of the total 60 member Assembly in 2003 by securing 50.09 per cent votes while it�s seat tally has risen to 49 by polling 51.34 per cent votes in 2008 elections.
The Left further enhanced its strength by polling 52.32 votes in 2013 Assembly elections and had won in 50 constituencies. Now, it is to be seen what will happen if the poll percentage shows a downward trend in the Marxist ruled State.