J&K witnesses 70 pct voter turnout

Addressing a press conference, Chief Electoral Officer Umang Narula said 77 percent votes were cast in 9-Gurez, 70 percent in 10-Bandipora, 80 percent in 11-Sonawari, 76 percent  in 16-Kangan, 53  percent in 17-Ganderbal, 75.6 percent in 47-Nobra, 66 percent in 48-Leh, 60 percent in 49-Kargil, 71 percent in 50-Zanskar, 68.83 percent in 51-Kishtwar, 72.54 percent in 52-Inderwal, 79 percent in 53-Doda, 70 percent in 54-Bhaderwah, 68 percent in 55-Ramban (SC) and 70 percent  in 56-Banihal.

He said  polling percentage may increase as details are awaited from some remote areas.

Narula maintained that the polling was held in a peaceful atmosphere and no untoward incident was reported from any part of the constituency and in order to ensure that the polling is done in various inaccessible areas of the hilly districts, 43 air sorties were done.

The Chief Electoral Officer said that the constituencies that went to polls were spread over seven districts for which as many as 1787 polling station at 1606 locations were set up. It included 85 critical and 558 hypersensitive ones.

In order to improve the voting experience of the voters, 92 model polling stations were established with innovative facilities, Narula said and added that web casting was done on 159  polling Stations and 148 digital and 118 video cameras were deployed.

Narula said that 255 micro observers were also deployed during the polling.

The CEO said 123 candidates were in the fray for these 15 constituencies which comprised 1061275 numbers of electors including 558178 male, 503086 female and 11 third gender voters.

A 61 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the 2008 Assembly polls for these 15 seats -- 6 in Jammu division, 5 in Kashmir Valley and four in Ladakh.

(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)