About 50 per cent polling till noon

Thiruvananthapuram, May 3 : About 50 per cent of the 2.4 million voters exercised their franchise till noon today in the last and final phase of Kerala Assembly elections in Kannur and Kasargode districts.

Kannur recorded 50 per cent of polling while in Kasargode, the polling percentage was 44 as polling progressed in the two districts, Election Commission sources said.

Barring minor incidents, the polling was by and large peaceful in the two politically volatile northern districts of the state.

In Kannur district, even from the start of the polling, long queues were seen outside all the polling stations in the ten constituencies. In Kasargode, though polling started on a low note, it had gained momentum in the five constituencies.

The voting was interrupted in some booths due to technical fault in the Electronic Voting Machines. It is also reported that polling was progressing in a slow pace as digital cameras were being used in almost all the booths.

Elaborate security arrangements were made to ensure law and order and a peaceful polling as most of the 2,373 polling booths in the two districts were identified as trouble-prone. Each booth is manned by five policemen.

Eighty five candidates, including CPI(M) state secretariat member Kodeyeri Balakrishnan, Congress (S) president Kadanappally Ramachandran and former Minister K Sudhakaran are in the fray.

UNI