Date:30/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/30/stories/2008053051640300.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Technical glitches, protests mark bypolls

Staff Reporter

ALAIR (NALGONDA DT.): Isolated incident of assault on a police constable, technical glitches to the Electronic Voting Machines at two places and protest by a group of voters on denial of voting rights marked the byelections to Alair Assembly constituency on Thursday.

In the incident free polling, 71 per cent voters exercised their franchise, which is three percent lesser than the poll percentage of the 2004 general elections. “Every thing went on very well and no single incident is reported in 193 booths spread across eight mandals,” the Collector M. Purushottam Reddy and the Superintendent of Police Vijay Kumar told reporters.

Tension prevailed at Chandupatla village when some Congress activists roughed up a police constable on duty in the morning.