Guwahati:

The Election Commission of India has declared polling “void” for the Lok Sabha elections at six polling stations in the Outer Manipur Parliamentary constituency. Fresh polling will be held in these stations on Tuesday (April 30), the Chief Electoral Officer of Manipur said in a press release.

Polling was held on Friday at 848 polling stations in 13 of the 28 Assembly segments under the Outer Manipur Parliamentary seat. The 15 other Assembly segments had voted in the first phase on April 19 along with the Inner Manipur Lok Sabha seat.

Manipur Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Pradeep Kumar Jha, citing the Election Commission order, appealed to the voters to cast their votes in large numbers in these six polling stations on Tuesday.

Election officials said that various disturbances occurred in these six polling stations on Friday, prompting the EC to order fresh polling on Tuesday.

Nearly 82 per cent of around 4.85 lakh eligible voters on Friday exercised their franchise in the remaining parts of the Outer Manipur Lok Sabha constituency.

Even in the first phase, eleven booths in Manipur had gone for repolling after incidents of firing, intimidation, destruction of EVMs and allegations of booth capturing.

Imphal:

A voter turnout of 81.6 per cent was recorded during repolling at 11 polling stations in the Inner Manipur Lok Sabha constituency on Monday, officials said.

No incidents of disturbance or violence were reported at any of the polling stations, an election official said.

A complaint, however, was received from the Congress claiming that an unidentified man had threatened a Congress agent over the phone to vacate the polling booth at Moirangkampu Sajeb, the official said.

The decision about fresh polling was taken following a directive from the Election Commission, which declared voting held at these stations on April 19 as null and void.

Incidents of firing, intimidation, destruction of EVMs at some polling stations and allegations of booth capturing were reported from conflict-hit Manipur, which recorded a turnout of 72 per cent in the two Lok Sabha constituencies – Inner Manipur and Outer Manipur – on Friday.

The repolling on Monday began at 7 am and concluded at 5 pm at all the polling stations amid tight security arrangements.

“Voters queued up since early morning to exercise their franchise at all the 11 polling stations, which were affected by a riot-like situation on Friday. No disturbance or violence has been reported so far on Monday,” the election official said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)