Polling peaceful;80% cast votes in Kannur

Amid tight security,bye-elections for Kannur assembly constituency ended by and large peacefully as 80 per cent of over 1.33 lakh electorate cast votes till the end of polling hours at 1700 hours,official sources here said.

It was an altogether new experience for the voters in Kannur where around 2,000 odd security personnel including those drawn from the Central forces maintained vigil.

Central security personnel allowed voters to enter the polling booths after verifying their identity cards at the entry points of all the booths.The voters who did not bring their identity cards were asked to furnish an affidavit citing reasons for not carrying it.

CPI-M leader M Prakashan MLA, had complained to the State Chief Electoral Officer and the District Returning Officer objecting to the verification being carried out by the Central forces.

The sources said barring isolated incidents of minor altercation, polling went off by and large peacefully in the constituency, where the rival Congress and CPI-M had been engaged in acrimonious electioneering with the Congress.

No untoward incident was reported from anywhere in Ernakulam constituency where about 64% polling was recorded,official sources said. In the 2006 assembly election, Ernakulam had registered 61.14%. Tight security arrangement had been made and a contingent of Karnataka police was also deployed.