Punjab, Goa Elections 2017: Election Commission's Media Brief Highlights

New Delhi: Punjab and Goa voted for key state elections today, with around 2 crore eligible voters deciding the fate of more than 1,300 candidates. Voting began at 7 am in Goa, 8 am in Punjab and ended at 5 pm in both the states. Preliminary reports said that around 70 per cent of voters voted in Punjab while in Goa the turnout was 83 per cent. The elections in the two states are seen as a test of the Aam Aadmi Party's expansion plans beyond Delhi. For the BJP, which is power in both the states, it will be the first electoral contest since November's notes ban. Votes for Punjab and Goa elections, along with three other states, will be counted on March 11. The Election Commission addressed the media about voting in both the states.

Here are highlights from the Election Commission's news conference on voting in Punjab and Goa:

Umesh Sinha on Goa elections

• Would like to thank state machinery.
• There are 40 assembly seats in North and South Goa
  There were 11.17 lac voters in total
• More than 11 lakh voters were issued election cards this year
• This election had 251 candidates
• There are 1,642 polling stations in the state
• More than 1,000 EVMs were used in this elections
• It was for the first time that Election Commission deployed Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail or VVPAT in all polling station in a state
• All central observers appointed were women. More than 17,500 postal ballots were deployed
• Goa was first state to do 100 per cent webcasting of the polling
• There was no poll boycott in entire state
• No incidents of paid news
• 40 model polling stations were set up
• For the first time 100% electronically transmitted postal ballots used
• In north Goa the voter turnout was 84% and in south Goa, it was 81.5%
• Record turnout in Goa of 83 per cent was witnessed. This is tentative. Once postal ballots counted and others, we hope we will exceed this figure
• The Election here has been very very festive. This has been highest ever turnout.
• Repoll to be held in one booth in Margao, as officer forgot to close machine after mock poll
• 6 kg drugs worth Rs 34.22 lakh were seized from the state

Sandeep Saxena on Punjab elections

• 22 districts, 117 constituencies, Over 22,000 polling stations
• Over 1,100 model polling stations
• 100% accessible election - complete mapping of facilities for people with disabilities
• There were over 8,100 micro observers
• Total 1.27 lakh polling personnel
• Strong arrangements for security: 500 companies - 50,000 central, 63,000 state police were deployed
• No major incident on poll day was reported throughout the day
• 3,500 stations had webcasting
• 3.6 lakh licensed arms were seized ahead of polls - most of them voluntarily
• Around 58.02 crores cash was seized
• 12.43 lakh litres of liquor seized worth Rs 13.34 crore
• 2,598 kg drugs and narcotic - heroin, ganja (marijuana), capsule etc worth 18.26 crores, 164.3 kg gold and 26.5 kg silver was seized
• There were 59 cases of paid news
• 1,200 people were arrested
• The voter turnout in the state was 70 per cent
• Polling is still going on at many stations. Polling period was fixed from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm and publicity done that everyone who reaches by 5:00 will be allowed to vote
• Total turnout in 2012 assembly elections was 78.06%, in 2014 Lok Sabha it was 70.89%
  On cases of EVM malfunctioning, 22,615 EVMs used and 47 malfunctioned - 0.2%
  VV Pad - 187 malfunctioned 2.8% (within range of 1-3%)