Thaindian News

Chandigarh, Jan 31 (IANS) The final vote count in the election to 117 assembly seats in Punjab Monday has come to 78.67 percent — the highest-ever in the electoral history of the state, Election Commission (EC) officials announced Tuesday evening.

Chief electoral officer Kusumjit Sidhu said the latest information received from all constituencies revealed that the average polling in Monday’s election was 78.67 percent.

“While Amritsar (West) has recorded the lowest voter turnout of 57.59 percent, Guru Har Sahai has reported the highest turnout of 89.88 percent, followed by Gidderbaha with 88.73 percent,” Sidhu said here.

Earlier, the EC had announced Monday evening that 76.63 percent votes, which surpassed all earlier voting records, were cast in the election. There are over 1.76 crore voters in the state.

The EC ordered re-polling in polling station No.76 of the Amritsar East assembly seat. The re-poll will be held Thursday (Feb 2) from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Sidhu said that all teams set up by the EC for election work stood disbanded from Tuesday except for those in Amritsar East seat. Liquor sale will be banned in the constituency on Feb 2.

Counting of the votes will take place March 6.

Monday’s election remained largely peaceful except for the death of a youth in Ferozepur district in a poll-related clash which happened after the official polling timing was over at 5 p.m. There were nearly a dozen other incidents of minor violence elsewhere in the state but no major incident was reported.

The main contest was between the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance and the opposition Congress. Former finance minister Manpreet Badal’s newly-floated People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) was in the fray providing a third front.