Repoll to be held at nearly 700 booths; vote percentage stands at over 80%

Kolkata: The state Election Commission (SEC) on Sunday announced a repoll in about 698 booths in different districts across the state on Monday.

Polling was held in 61,539 booths on Saturday which indicates that repoll would be held in around 1 per cent booths. According to the SEC, the final polling percentage for this year’s Panchayat elections stands at about 80.71 per cent.

The decision of repoll was taken after the SEC on Sunday held several meetings with the returning officers and other concerned officials of the Commission. There were allegations of ballot papers being destroyed and rigging at many polling booths across the state.

According to sources in the Commission, the maximum number of booths that will witness a repoll is from Murshidabad with 175 booths, followed by Malda where the repoll will be held in 110 booths. Nadia will have repoll in 89, Cooch Behar in 54, North 24-Parganas 46, South 24-Parganas 36, East Midnapore 31, Purulia 4, West Burdwan 6, East Burdwan 3, West Midnapore 10, Jalpaiguri 14, Howrah 8, Hooghly 29, South Dinajpur 18, North Dinajpur 42, Birbhum 14, Bankura 8 and Alipurduar 1.

Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Jhargram will not have any repoll, till reports last came in.

The percentage of votes, on Saturday, after 5 pm witnessed a significant rise with the final vote percentage going up to 80.71 per cent. The vote percentage as declared by the state Election Commission till 5 pm on Saturday was 66.28. However, the final percentage declared by the poll panel was surely on the higher side.

The Commission rule states clearly that if a voter with his/ her voting slip stands in the voting queue by 5 pm, then he/ she should be allowed to cast their votes. It was reported that in several polling booths voting continued till late evening as people preferred to cast their votes during late hours.

Interestingly, East Midnapore surpassed West Midnapore and accounted for the highest voting percentage of 84.79 up from 67.23 68.88 (till 5 pm on Saturday). West Midnapore which had registered the highest voting percentage till 5 pm on Saturday with 70.14 dropped to the fourth spot after final voting results with 82.59 per cent. Birbhum saw a steep rise in voting percentage from 68.88 and bagged the second spot with 83.18 per cent.

Bankura which had seen 69.83 per cent voting till 5 pm climbed to third place with 83.05.

Infact, every district registered a rise in voting percentage after the Commission came up with the final percentage on Sunday. Only West Burdwan registered not so significant rise in poll percentage. Not a single district has had 80 per cent voting till 5 pm, Saturday, but the final list has found at least 13 districts having more than 80 per cent voting.

The final voting percentage showed Alipurduar ending up with a poll percentage of 78.51 up from 63.11, Cooch Behar 78.68 from 63.84, Hooghly 78.07 from 65.43, Howrah 79.33 from 67.58, Jalpaiguri 81.45 from 62.24, Jhargram 82.47 from 64.26, Kalimpong 67.21 from 56.49, Malda 80.06 from 63.44, Murshidabad 80.96 from 65.95, Nadia 80.58 from 68.72, North 24-Parganas 80.49 from 67.88, West Burdwan 72.51 from 68.90, East Burdwan 80.13 from 68.90, Purulia 81.44 from 59.85, South 24-Parganas 81.44 from 65.40, North Dinajpur 79.59 from 61.93, South Dinajpur 79.44 from 56.87.

Murshidabad which had bore testimony to maximum unrest and deaths since the filing of nominations began also ended up with over 80 per cent voting.

Darjeeling which had seen extremely peaceful voting witnessed 65.64 per cent.

In the 2018 Panchayat elections, the overall voting percentage was slightly higher at 82.29.