The Election Commission has said that no repoll has been recommended at any of the 44,376 polling stations in West Bengal where voting was held in the first phase on April 23, officials said on Saturday. It also added that no repoll was needed in Tamil Nadu, where Assembly elections have already been completed.
According to a senior Election Commission official, the polling process was completed without any major disruption that would warrant fresh voting at any booth. “No repoll has been recommended in any of the 44,376 polling stations of West Bengal where polls were held on Thursday,” the official told news agency PTI on Friday.
Poll panel officials had earlier cited rules to point out that if webcasting in any of the polling stations is "deliberately" disrupted, a repoll will be ordered.
In the 2021 assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, a repoll at a polling station in Chennai was ordered as a defective paper trail machine was carried out on a two-wheeler, as the 'zonal party' of the area erroneously mistook it as an unused defective machine.
This was violative of EC orders.
The poll panel said reports from the ground in West Bengal did not indicate any significant irregularities that could have affected the integrity of voting. The official added that standard scrutiny processes, including inputs from observers and field reports, were reviewed before taking the decision.
The first phase of polling covered 152 constituencies across 16 districts and recorded a voter turnout of 92.6%, with central forces and micro-observers deployed to ensure a free and fair election process.
Officials said scrutiny of polling data is still underway, and the final turnout figures for the April 23 phase will be confirmed after completion of the verification process.
The second phase of polling in West Bengal is scheduled for April 29.
(With inputs from PTI)