Jubilee Post News & Views
- Polling held peacefully on all 10 LS seats of UP
- Proper security arrangements were ensured for fair and peaceful elections in the state
- Webcasting arrangements were made at 10,208 polling places during the voting process, videography was done at a total of 3,503 polling places
Lucknow.The Chief Electoral Officer of Uttar Pradesh, Mr Navdeep Rinwa said that voting on 10 Lok Sabha constituencies of the state – Sambhal, Hathras, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah, Budaun, Amroha, and Bareilly – was conducted peacefully with no untoward incident reported from anywhere in the third phase of the Lok Sabha General Elections 2024.
He mentioned that according to the information received from the concerned districts, voting took place until 6 p.m. with a turnout of 57.34 per cent, with 62.81 per cent in Sambhal, 55.36 per cent in Hathras, 53.99 per cent in Agra, 57.09 per cent in Fatehpur Sikri, 58.22 per cent in Firozabad, 58.59 per cent in Mainpuri, 59.17 per cent in Etah, 54.05 per cent in Budaun, 57.08 per cent in Amroha, and 57.88 per cent in Bareilly.
The Chief Electoral Officer addressed the press conference in the conference hall on the 7th floor of the Election Office. He stated that to ensure the fairness of the voting process in the third phase in Uttar Pradesh, webcasting was implemented across 10,208 polling stations for efficient oversight. This supervision was conducted by the District Election Officer, Chief Electoral Officer, and Election Commission of India at all levels.
Additionally, videography was done at 3,503 polling stations. For postal ballot voting in the third phase, eligible categories (voters aged 85 and above, divyangs, essential services personnel, and polling personnel) saw a total of 17,278 postal ballots cast.
Voters aged 85 and above, as well as divyangs voters who had opted for postal ballots, were facilitated with home voting. To ensure the process remained independent, impartial, and transparent, each polling team was accompanied by a micro observer and videographer.
Additionally, a total of 41,908 service voters were also electronically sent postal ballots by the Returning Officer ETPBS through electronic mode. EDC has been issued to 13,515 personnel.
The Chief Electoral Officer mentioned, “To ensure vigilant oversight of the voting process in the third phase, the Commission had deployed 10 General Observers, 6 Police Observers, and 14 Expenditure Observers. Additionally, 1887 Sector Magistrates, 241 Zonal Magistrates, 668 Static Magistrates, and 2859 Micro Observers were also deployed. At the state level, the Election Commission had appointed one Senior General Observer, one Senior Police Observer and one Senior Expenditure Observer.”
He further said that receiving several complaints via email from various political parties during the voting process, which were addressed by district officials and the concerned political parties were also informed about them via email. Sufficient deployment of paramilitary forces was undertaken to ensure the peaceful conduct of the elections. The responsibility for the security of the Strong Rooms containing EVMs was also assigned to the paramilitary forces.
The Chief Electoral Officer stated that for all 20,415 polling stations in the third phase of elections, adequate arrangements for EVMs and VVPATs were made. Wherever complaints were received during the voting process, immediate action was taken to replace the EVMs and VVPATs. According to information received from the districts, during mock polls, 167 ballot units, 295 control units, and 478 VVPATs were replaced. After actual voting, a total of 48 ballot units and 152 VVPATs were replaced. In total, machines were replaced at 152 polling stations. Around 250 complaints were received during the election, but the election remained entirely peaceful, and there were no reports of any unpleasant incidents.
