Manipur phase III poll witnesses 80 per cent turnout

New Delhi, Feb 23 (UNI) An estimated 80 per cent of the over 3,50,000 voters exercised their franchise today in the third and final phase of elections to 12 Manipur Assembly constituencies spread over Churachandpur, Tamenglong and Chandel districts and Jiribam sub-divisions.

Briefing newspersons, Deputy Chief Election Commissioner J P Prasad said here the elections were by and large peaceful and reports indicate the voter turnout was around 80 per cent, which may go up.

Mr Prasad said in order to speed up the poll process as well as to provide security cover, three helicopters have been deployed to airlift the Electronic Voting machines (EVMs) from remote areas.

In all, 147 EVMs were deployed for equal number of polling stations for conducting today's poll in a free and fair manner.

UNI