Uttar Pradesh recorded a 59.2 per cent peaceful voter turnout in the fifth phase that went to polls on Thursday spread across 13 districts comprising Ferozabad, Kanshi Ram Nagar, Etah, Mainpuri, Aurraiya, Etawah, Kanpur, Jalaun, Ramabai Nagar, Jhansi, Hamirpur, Mahoba and Lalitpur, thereby maintaining a high percentage of voter turnout in every phase and that too in the absence of any major untoward incident.
Deputy Election Commissioner Vinod Zutshi said in Delhi, “Polling in the fifth phase of UP elections remained peaceful, without any complaint or interruption, as no major incident of violence took place.”
In the same phase in 2007, the voter turnout was pegged at 47.57 per cent. Mr Zutshi said, “There has been a 24 per cent increase in voter turnout this time in the districts that went to polls today, as compared to the 2007 Assembly elections.” The maximum voter turnout was recorded in Lalitpur district, which recorded 70.58 per cent voter turnout while Kanpur district saw the minimum turnout of 54.60 per cent.
Repolling will be held in one polling booth in Jaswantnagar in Etawah due to a technical problem. The data fed into the EVM during a mock drill two days ago were not erased according to Mr Zutshi.
Complaints related to EVM functioning was reported from 22 places but polling was not disrupted in any of them. Polling was boycotted in eight polling stations in Kanpur, Etawah and Hamirpur where the people did not vote in protest against lack of development.
The chief electoral officer, Mr Umesh Sinha, said in Lucknow that the average voter turnout of the first five phases of elections in UP was 58.02 which was the highest since Indepen-dence. He said that polling had been completed in 275 Assembly segments spread over 52 districts till now and only two phases of polling remained.
The CEO said that there were 829 candidates in the fifth phase, including 87 women. He said that 1.56 crore voters were eligible to cast their vote in this phase that had 28,173 electronic voting machines in 17,627 polling stations.
In last Assembly elections in 2007, there were 53 seats in fifth phase of which BSP won 27, SP 14, BJP 6, Congress 4 and others 2.
According to UP Election Watch, a poll monitoring group, nearly 76 candidates contesting the fifth phase of elections had criminal cases pending against them.