AP polls till midnight in 400 booths

The Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh were unusual on Thursday.  The single-phase polling was marred by clashes in parts of the State.  Also, a few hundreds of EVMs reported technical glitches.  All this led to a delay in the completion of voting.

The voting had to end by 6 pm.  However, with hundreds of voters standing in queues at that time in about 400 polling booths, the Election Commission decided to continue the polling process.  And, in several of these booths, it continued beyond 10 pm.  

“Midnight polling took place in parts of Guntur, Krishna district, Nellore and Kurnool districts,” a report says.

There was a record turnout of voters, with 80 percent polling percentage reported by preliminary reports.