Nearly 40 percent voting in in Baramulla, 65 in Ladakh: CEO

Srinagar, May 7 (IANS) At least 65 percent voting was seen in Jammu and Kashmir's Ladakh Lok Sabha constituency Wednesday, while the turnout in Baramulla was almost 40 percent, the state's top poll official said.

"39.6 percent polling was recorded in 15 assembly segments of Baramulla parliamentary constituency which went to polls on Wednesday amid tight security," state's chief electoral officer (CEO) Umang Narula told a media conference here.

"This percentage can marginally increase as these figures are tentative as we are yet to receive polling figures from several polling stations. But, I can confirm 39.6 percent voting in Baramulla Parliamentary constituency as of now," he said.

Voting in the three districts of Baramulla Lok Sabha seat was 25.04 percent in Baramulla, 35.65 percent in Bandipora and 63.19 percent in Kupwara district.

The CEO said for the Ladakh Parliamentary seat the poll percentage was 65 percent.

Narula said 2,147 polling stations were set up across the two parliamentary constituencies, which included 132 critical and 1,091 hyper sensitive polling stations based on security concerns.

"Web casting was done in 15 booths, besides 20 digital as well as 92 video cameras were installed for covering the voting process. 19 candidates were in fray for these two constituencies, which comprised 13,57,321 electorate comprising 7,10,105 males and 6,47,180 females."

In 2009 Lok Sabha elections Ladakh had recorded a poll percentage of 71.86 while Baramulla recorded 41.84 percent.

Inspector General of Police (Kashmir) Abdul Ghani Mir, who was also present, said that extraordinary security arrangements were put in place to conduct the election smoothly and peacefully and barring a few incidents of stone-pelting the situation remained peaceful throughout.