District records 85% turnout of voters
Our Correspondent
Mokokchung, May 28 (EMN): The Election Commission India (ECI) might order re-polling at Kubza village in the 26th Aonglenden assembly constituency in Mokokchung district following reports of untoward incidents at 13-Kubza polling station on Monday afternoon.
As voting for the Lok Sabha by-election in the village was going smoothly at around 12:30 some miscreants entered the polling station and destroyed the EVMs, said Sachin Jaiswal, the deputy commissioner of Mokokchung.
Jaiswal said that 77% of the votes had been cast when the ‘unknown miscreants ‘ransacked the polling station. However, Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail or Verifiable Paper Record was left undamaged during the incident.
Polling was stopped after the incident, it was informed.
The situation could not be handled because of thin security arrangements. However, after receiving the information additional security forces were deployed to normalise the situation, Jaiswal said. In this connection, seven persons have arrested by the police.
Jaiswal has also sent a report to the ECI requesting re-polling at 13-Kubza polling station.
Kubza village consists of 641 voters. Altogether 13 companies of security forces including five companies of the 5th BSF were deployed in Mokokchung district to ensure free and fair polls for the Lok Sabha by-election.
Out of 1,36,883 eligible voters in 226 polling stations in the district, 85% turnout was reported on Monday. Till late Monday evening, 123 EVMs were said to have reached Mokokchung district headquarter.