BHUBANESWAR: Fresh polling will be held in 34 booths in 10 districts of the State, where elections were cancelled for various reasons, on May 19.
Accordingly, the Election Commission has district election officers (DEOs) to make arrangements in this regard. The 34 polling stations include three in cyclone-ravaged Puri where relief and restoration works are still underway.
Apart from Puri, fresh polls will be held in the remaining 31 booths of different Assembly segments in Cuttack, Deogarh, Angul, Keonjhar, Khurda, Jajpur, Balasore, Mayurbhanj and Jagatsinghpur districts. Polling in these booths had been scrapped due to violence, glitches in EVMs as well as cross pairing of EVMs and VVPATs during the third and fourth phase of Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the State on April 23 and 29 respectively.
Sources said elections in some of the booths, particularly in Satyabadi and Brahmagiri segments of Puri, will be a challenging task as electricity is yet to be restored in these areas which were battered by cyclone Fani on May 3.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Surendra Kumar has asked the DEOs-cum-Collectors of cyclone-hit districts to take necessary measures. Kumar also directed the DEOs to widely publicise the date, place and timing of polling in their respective areas.
Except booth no 183 in Deogarh Assembly segment where voting time is from 7 am to 4 pm, elections will be held in all the remaining polling stations between 7 am and 6 pm. Odisha went to polls in four phases on April 11, 18, 23 and 29. The State recorded an average polling percentage of 73.08. Counting of votes will be done on May 23.