Imphal: The first phase of polling on Friday in Manipur that has seen almost year-long ethnic strife, was marred by reports of firing, a destroyed Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) and armed persons threatening voters.
The Congress candidate for Inner Manipur, Akoijam Bimol, had a face-off with senior police personnel as Congress agents inside the polling stations were asked to leave the polling stations.
Bimol questioned the role of police and security personnel in not taking action when Congress agents were forced out of various polling stations.
At 5/31 polling station, Thongju, some people destroyed the EVM, alleging forcible casting of vote for a particular candidate by some armed persons. At Thamnapokpi some unknown persons fired near the polling station, which caused conflict and chaos.
At 10/6 Uripok, the EVM was destroyed by some persons alleging booth capture by some armed persons.
Voting began at 7 am and by 11 am the poll percentage was 29.61 per cent.
The turnout was 31.62 per cent in Inner Manipur and 26.02 percent in Outer Manipur.
