Manipur Polls: EC Mulling Whether To Conduct Polls Or Not In Keithelmanbi After Clash

Imphal: As the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) was found broken, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Rajesh Agarwal on Monday said that the state Election Commission is mulling whether to continue the polls or not amid reports of poll disruption in Manipur's Keithelmanbi in Imphal West district.

Commenting on the same, Agarwal said they have fully aware if the incident of the EVM machine which has been found broken.

''We're examining whether to continue polls here today or go for a re-poll," Agarwal added.

According to reports, clashes occurred between BJP and Congress workers in Keithelmanbi after the Opposition party accused other of booth capturing.

A total of 173 candidates, including 15 females, are in the fray for the poll.

The first phase of Manipur polls which covers 29 seats in state's valley districts -- Imphal West, Imphal East, and Bishnupur. The rest are in the hill districts of Kangpokpi, Churachandpur, and Pherzawl have witnessed nearly 50 per cent as of 1 PM today.

According to Election Commission of India (ECI) a voter turnout of 48.88 per cent was recorded till 1 PM for the first phase of Manipur elections.

In the wake of COVID-19, all polling stations have been sanitized and circles have been marked outside the polling booths to enable the voters to maintain social distancing while they stand in a queue.

Wearing masks, using hand sanitizer and conducting thermal screening are among the other COVID protocols are being carried out at the polling booths.

Taking to micro-blogging site twitter, the CEO Manipur stated that Imphal East have recorded 46.11 followed by Imphal West 52.15, Bihsnupur 50.48, Kangpokpi 61.30 and Churachandpur 40.37.

The second phase of this 60-member Assembly will take place on March 5 and the counting of votes will take place on March 10.

Also read: Two killed in bomb blast on eve of 1st phase of polling in Manipur

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