AGARTALA, June 28 (TIWN): The by-polling for the Tripura 13-Pratapgarh SC constituency and 46-Surma SC constituency on Saturdayended peacefully without any untoward incident reported yet with 85 percent in Pratapgarh and 78 percent in Surma constituency of the electorate having cast their votes on for the first time used Electronic Voting machines (EVMs) in which candidates' photographs have been displayed to avoid confusion among the voters. The turnout was recorded till evening 5:00 PM on Saturday.

Talking to the reporters here at the civil secretariat Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S K Rakesh said, “There is no report any untoward incident occurred except some technical faults in the EVM machine at 46-Surma booth.” Adding to that CEO said, “The technical fault was found at the machine at Morachara Anaganwadi School at Surma, but later immediately the technicians had replaced the EVM with another new machine.”

He said there was no complaint of electoral misconduct raised by any political party. Central para-military force and Tripura State Rifles personnel were deployed for smooth polling, said CEO.

However it is to be mentioned here that despite bad weather, a large number of voters including women could be witnessed at the two constituencies queued up to exercise their franchise. The counting of vote would be held on June 30 and the entire election procedure would end by July 2.

According to the officials, 50,004 voters in Pratapgarh and 42,142 in Surma assembly constituencies were eligible to cast their votes to choose their representative from the nine candidates in the fray.

A large number of voters witnessed queued up at the polling stations of the two constituencies, but interestingly according to the report a low number of voters on Saturday turned up to caste vote at the city areas here under the Pratapgarh constituency.

According to the official, 61 polling stations of Pratapgarh constituency, eight were categorized as sensitive. In Surma, of the 54 polling stations four were categorized as hypersensitive, 23 as sensitive for security reasons. The central paramilitary forces along with the BSFs and the local police are deployed on Saturday to restrict any untoward incidents during the poll.

However, this year for the first time candidates' images would be displayed on EVMs. "The images would be displayed in the middle of the party symbol and the candidates' names in the EVMs following a Supreme Court direction to avoid confusion among the voters," said State election commissioner S K Rakesh earlier.