Chief Electoral Officer Maneesh Garg on Sunday said that as per the reports received at the state headquarters, the approximate poll percentage for the just held assembly election in the state stands at 75.6 per cent.

He said that 74.6 per cent of votes was cast through electronic voting machines (EVMs) while one per cent votes were polled through postal ballots, taking the overall turnout to 75.6 per cent till now. Nearly two per cent postal ballots are yet to be received, added Garg.

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The highest polling percentage of 85.25 per cent has been reported from Doon assembly constituency and the lowest of 62.53 per cent from Shimla seat.

Garg said the State Election Department in 2022 Vidhan Sabha Elections had put a lot of focus on the constituencies with low voter turnout in the 2017 polls.

“We launched SVEEP and voter awareness activities under the UTSAV (Universal Transparent Elections through Systematic Awareness of Voters) programme. There was a special focus on 11 assembly constituencies of the state,” he added.

A comparative analysis of these constituencies – Dharampur, Jaisinghpur, Shimla, Baijnath, Bhoranj, Solan, Kasumpati, Sarkaghat, Jaswan Pragpur, Hamirpur and Badsar – revealed that out of 11 these constituencies, the voter turnout eventually improved in 9 of them by up to 7 per cent, he said.

The increase in Dharampur seat was of 6.93 per cent from 63.6 per cent in 2017 to 70.54 per cent in the assembly election of 2022,

Similarly, in Jaisinghpur the percentage increased from 63.79 in 2017 to 65.31, in Bhoranj from 65.04 per cent in 2017 to 68.55 per cent in the latest assembly poll.

In Solan, the voting increased from 66.45 per cent to 66.84, in Barsar, from 69.06 to 71.17 per cent, in Hamirpur from 68.52 to 71.28 per cent, in Jaswan-Pragpur from 68.41 to 73.67 per cent, in Sarkaghat from 67.23 to 68.06 per cent and in Kasumpati from 66.86 to 68.24 per cent.

However, in Shimla (U) and Baijnath, the percentage dipped slightly from 63.93 per cent in the 2017 assembly poll to 62.53 and from 64.92 in the last assembly election to 63.46 in the 2022 poll respectively.

The CEO stated that the Election Commission of India on their visit to the state had also asked and guided us to focus on low voter turnout assembly constituencies.

He said that the strong rooms have been sealed with a three-tier security system and the scrutiny has been completed in the presence of Observers of ECI, candidates or their representatives and ROs.

As many as 240 Flying Squads were deputed in all 68 assembly segments, besides 242 Static Surveillance teams, 75 Assistant Expenditure Observers, 166 Video surveillance teams, 72 video viewing teams, 73 accounting teams, 53 Complaint monitoring control rooms and Call Centres at Returning Officer (RO) and District Election Officer (DEO) and CEO level, 13 Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) and paid news at CEO and DEO level and 13 expenditure monitoring cells at CEO, DEO level round the clock.

The CEO said that out of a total of 1,779 complaints received during this period, 292 were closed after inquiry, and corrective action was taken and compliance was reported in as many as 1308 complaints.

“Out of these, 1013 complaints were received over C-Vigil out of which corrective action was taken in respect of 861 complaints,” he said.

Garg attributed the increase in complaints to the awareness generated by the election machinery about the App of ECI and also the vigilant citizens of the state for reporting violations on the application, helping in better enforcement of Model Code of Conduct during the election.