Nearly 68 percent polling recorded for LSE and around 69 percent for Bye-polls till 5:30 PM : CEO

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Maneesh Garg thanked the voters of the state for making the grand festival of democracy successful by ensuring their whole hearted participation with great enthusiasm. He said that good voter turnout was due to the endeavour of Election Commission of India (ECI) together with the concerted efforts of the team of Himachal Election Department and particularly due to awareness of the people of the State towards their right to franchise. 

He also specially thanked all categories of voters including young who participated for the first time and elderly voters, women voters and PwD voters for showing interest in voting and contributing to the democratic process.

Maneesh Garg thanked the Election Commission of India (ECI), especially Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar for continuously guiding the Election Department from time to time.

He said that according to the information received so far in the state headquarters, about 68 percent voting was recorded till 5.30 PM for Lok Sabha whereas around 69 percent was for bye-polls. He said that people started leaving their homes early in the morning and reaching the polling stations.

Braving the rising mercury in the lower belt of Himachal, the polling picked up early in morning which was about 31.92 percent for the Parliamentary elections by 11 AM which rose to 48.63 percent at 1 PM. The poll percentage picked up in the evening and by 5 PM it was 66.56 percent.  According to the information received till 5:30 PM, the highest 73.8 percent voting was recorded in Lahaul & Spiti district followed by 71.3 percent in Kullu district while the lowest 65 percent voting was recorded in Chamba and Kangra district respectively. He said that the final figures of voting percentage will be released only after the return of all the polling parties and scrutiny of documents.

CEO said that apart from the voting in the state, about 41924 voters above 85 years of age, PwD and essential services voters have already cast their votes through postal ballot (PB), other than employees on election duty which will add about one percent to the overall voter turnout.

He said due to elaborate security arrangements done by State Election Department under the guidance of ECI, no untoward incident was reported in the State. Even in far-flung areas, people reached for voting at their respective polling stations with great zeal. Apart from 92 in tribal district Lahaul-Spiti and 128 in Kinnaur, a total of 152 polling stations were set up in tribal areas Bharmour and Pangi of Chamba district.

CEO said that to educate and aware voters about environmental protection and encouraging green cover, a total of 44 green polling stations were set up in different parts of the state. A total of 7992 polling stations were set up in the state for about 56.45 lakh voters excluding service voters. He informed that apart from this, there are a total of 66390 service voters in Himachal.

He said that a total of 37 candidates were in the fray for parliamentary constituencies while 25 are contesting for assembly bye-elections including a total of four women.  Out of which three women candidates were contesting for parliamentary constituencies while one is in fray for assembly bye-election. There are maximum 12 candidates contesting for Hamirpur PC while only five candidates contesting from Shimla PC.

He said that for real time monitoring of the entire polling process, 4885 polling stations were covered through live web casting, which was being continuously monitored through control rooms established at the state, district and assembly constituency levels. In the state, 195 polling stations were managed by women, 28 by PwD and 54 were youth managed. He informed that apart from this, 280 model polling stations were set up. Along with this, arrangements for creches for small children were also made in many districts viz Hamirpur, Una, Chamba, Kinnaur. Apart from this, in the lower areas, arrangements were made for tents in the polling booths to protect from heat, as well as ORS solution, health kits etc. for the voters.

He said that to monitor the voting process and to make the election process fair and transparent, four general observers, six expenditure observers and three police observers were appointed by the Election Commission.

After the announcement of polling on 16th March, 2024 and the implementation of the model code of conduct in the state, till the day of polling, in the joint action taken by the enforcement agencies of the Police, Income Tax, State Tax and Excise, Forest and Industry departments, seizures worth about 27 crore were made, which is about two and a half times more than the seizures made during the last Lok Sabha elections. This includes cash, illicit liquor, gold, jewellery, charas, narcotics and challans under the Mining Act etc. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, seizures worth about 11.31 crore were made.

During these elections, a total of 2236 complaints were received on C-Vigil, out of which 2008 complaints were resolved within the stipulated time period. 773 complaints were received on C-Vigil, out of which 771 were resolved.