CHANDIGARH, JANUARY 30: The Punjab Chief Electoral Officer Ms. Kusumjit Sidhu, today thanked the people of Punjab for their overwhelming participation in the election process and keeping the elections relatively incident free.
Addressing the media Ms. Sidhu said that according to the initial estimates sent by various districts poll percentage in Punjab may cross 75% and she was hopeful that it would surpass last Vidhan Sabha poll percentage of 75.47%. She said that people, political parties and candidates at large have cooperated with the Election Commission. The polling process in the state was relatively incident free. She said that up to 4pm, nine FIRs were registered in various districts relating to minor scuffles between rival groups and one media person was assaulted in Nabha by a political worker. She said that one old lady, who had come to cast the vote collapsed in the polling station due to natural reasons and according to the late evening reports one person has died in an incident of firing in Ferozepur Rural and two others were injured. Details of the incident were awaited, she added.
Ms. Sidhu said that according to the initial reports there were no booth capturing and according to the initial reports prima facie she doesnot find any reason for re-poll but decision would be taken after seeking final reports from the ROs. She said that six TV channels including Aaj Tak, Star News, Zee News, PTC, Times Now and NDTV and three news papers including Ajit, Dainik Jagran and Jag Bani have been issued notice for violating code of conduct on poll day. She said that on a complaint the Media Monitoring Committee monitored the content of PTC coverage and found that it was interviewing more SAD-BJP leaders than opposition and a final decision would be taken by ECI.
Thanking various departments including the Police, the Excise and Taxation, the income Tax, the Information Technology ,NIC and others for their cooperation to complete this Herculean task of polling smoothly. She also thanked the media both print and electronic for cooperating with the election commission and disseminating the message of election commission to the public.
