Berhampur: The Berhampur Lok Sabha constituency and the Assembly constituencies coming under it voted Thursday in the first phase of elections in Odisha.
The polling booths in both urban and rural areas started to see serpentine queues of voters from 7am onwards, while mock voting started at 5:30am Thursday.
In many polling booths voters from all walks of life voted without problems, but in some areas the electorate faced problems.
Several polling booths in Berhampur Parliamentary constituency saw cases of EVMs malfunctioning which delayed the polling.
Voters from polling booths like Jagdalpur in the Dighapahandi Assembly constituency in Ganjam district and Government High School-1 in Berhampur reported delay in polling due to glitches in EVMs.
“We waited for around three hours to vote as polling officials informed us that EVMs were malfunctioning. Many elderly people and women were forced to wait due to glitches in the machines. There was no voting from 10am to 11am due to this,” said Saroj Pradhan.
Similar problems were also reported from Government High School-1, Berhampur, early in the day, but it was set right by the polling team.
At the Jagdalpur polling booth there was no drinking water available for voters who were waiting in the scorching heat.
Meanwhile, some voters expressed their anguish at not finding their names in the electoral roll.
The district administration and election officials tried to arrange facilities for different kinds of voters. Most polling booths visited by this correspondent had arrangements for the differently-abled like wheelchairs and volunteers to take care of them. Many minor volunteers were also roped in by Anganwadi workers in this constituency.
Many innovative techniques were tried out by officials to attract voters. There were Pink Booths with ‘women-only’ staff in many areas of the constituency to woo women voters. Selfie-zones were arranged outside polling booths to attract young voters.
PNN