Polling peaceful in Tiruchendur and Vandavasi

T. Ramakrishnan

Voters standing in queue to cast their vote at the Government Girls Higher Secondary in Vandavasi Town. Photo: D. Gopalakrishnan

Amid elaborate security arrangements, Tiruchendur and Vandavasi Assembly constituencies on Saturday witnessed high polling.

Tiruchendur recorded 78.05 per cent voter turnout and Vandavasi 84.08 per cent.

However, there were allegations of the violation of model code of conduct. Those complaints received by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO)’s office were referred to the district-level government and police officials. The cases of mismatch of images of voters were microscopic, CEO Naresh Gupta said.

Noting that the voting exercise in nine polling stations in Vandavasi went beyond 6-30 p.m, Mr. Gupta told reporters at the Secretariat that the figures of poll percentage for Vandavasi was likely to be nearly 82 and for Tiruchendur, 78.

The numbers of polling stations were 196 in Tiruchendur and 217 in Vandavasi. All the polling stations in Tiruchendur were categorised as ‘sensitive’, of which 98 were ‘hypersensitive’.

The video coverage of the poll proceedings, capture of images of all the voters and their online viewing in the central server of the CEO office helped to reduce or eliminate chances of bogus voting, he said.

Though electioneering was intense and there were allegations and counter accusations of violations of model code of conduct, there was no untoward incident on polling day, thanks to foolproof security arrangements made by the police.

Two officers in the rank of Inspector General of Police were directly monitoring the security arrangements. “The heightened security arrangements would continue till the election process is over. The polling was absolutely peaceful with not a single incident of violence,” Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) K. Radhakrishnan said.

Thousands of police personnel, including companies of the Tamil Nadu Special Police, Central Reserve Police Force and Karnataka Reserve Police, were deployed in the constituencies. Round-the-clock vigil was maintained.

Tuticorin Collector and District Election Officer, G. Prakash said that one electronic voting machine each at Udangudi and Kayalpattinam developed snags but they were replaced immediately. Sending polling details through short messaging system by Block Development Officers was useful.

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