Bhubaneswar: As the Phase-III poll was held in our State as a part of the ongoing general elections and voting was conducted in total six parliamentary constituencies and 42 assembly constituencies covering 10 districts of Sambalpur, Deogarh, Angul, Dhenkanal, some parts of Cuttack, Puri, Nayagarh, Khurda, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj, tentative polling by 5 pm was recorded 61 percent.
Briefing media at around 5.30 pm, Odisha Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Surendra Kumar informed, “The third phase polling is still on. Because, today’s polling is slated till 6 pm in the most of the places. As per the information received by us by 5 pm, 61% polling has been reported. It is tentative figure and subject to change as polling is still underway. The figure will definitely go up.”
He added, “Today the election passed off almost peacefully. In the morning due to lack of knowledge there had been error. Initially such hiccups happen in the morning hours. But in most of the place the problems were solved in most of the places.”
“The same case of mispairing of control unit, ballot unit and VVPAT has been reported till now in two places. A question may arise why this problem is happening in our State. In Andhra Pradesh, the election was over in a single phase. Simultaneous elections are being held in five States including Odisha while in the other States only Lok Sabha election. Hence, there is no question of change in the EVM. As Odisha is having simultaneous elections and two sets of machines are being used, such problems are happening,” the CEO explained.