AGARTALA, May 3 (TIWN): Elections to the 30-member Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) passed off peacefully on Sunday with tentatively 83% votes cast, said Election Commissioner S.K.Rakesh on Sunday evening.Talking to the newsmen on Sunday at the civil secretariat EC S K Rakesh said, “The election was incident-free and tentatively about 83 % voters cast their votes.” He said that the highest percentage of vote was casted at 27 No. Purbamohuricherra constituency with 88%, while the lowest percentage rests at 76% at 28 No. Shilachari constituency. These are all tentative figure, said Rakesh.It is expected that the total percentage of vote casting might turn out to cross 83.6% that was recorded during the last ADC poll in 2010, said Rakesh.Adding to that Rakesh said, “A total of 4 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were replaced after those were found malfunctioned during the poll, while in addition to this more 6 EVMs were replaced before the actual poll.”He said that the polling officers found 6 EVM machines malfunctioning during the tests and later they were replaced whereas other 4 EVMs were immediately replaced by the technicians that were found malfunctioned during the poll. 4 EVM machines were replaced at 1/46 Dhamcherra-Jampui constituency, 14/9 Bodjonnagar, 22/9 Kathalia-Mirjapur and 25/33 Notunbazar-Malbasa.

Asked about any complaint registered with the election commissioner, Rakesh said, “No political parties had registered any complaint as of now.”  Adding to that Rakesh also said that on Sunday an unnatural death of an old aged man has been reported from Pechartha Machmara constituency.

The man was found vomiting blood after he came to cast his vote. Later he was taken to the hospital where the doctor declared him dead, said Rakesh.

Later, giving a clarification to the Central Paramilitary Force (CPMF) issue, Rakesh on Sunday said that earlier the state election commission demanded for 40 companies of CPMF, but Govt. of India has assigned 21 companies of CPMF for Tripura ADC poll.

Rakesh said, “The CPMFs sanctioned by Govt. of India were only assigned for area domination and to maintain law and order outside the polling centres.”

However, a total of 177 candidates were in fray across 28 constituencies and over 13,000 security personnel were deployed during the polls of which 6,900 were from the Tripura State Rifles (TSR), 4,000 civil police and 21 companies of central paramilitary forces including the CRPF and the BSF.   

A total of 7,58,554 electors, including 3,75,117 women, were eligible to cast their franchise. 

State election commissioner S K Rakesh congratulated the voters and state election commission for the peaceful vote.