Salem registers 78.13 per cent polling, EVM’s sealed and locked in Govt Engg College strong rooms

As per the final reports Salem has  registered 78.13 per cent polling in the General Elections held on April 19, 2024.

In all the six segments of Salem parliamentary constituency, more voters from the rural area came out to cast their votes as compared to the urban segments. Edappadi regisestered the maixum with a vote percentage of  84.71, Omlaur polled 82.84 per cent, Veerapandi 84. 46, Salem West and North segments registered 70.72 percent votes each and Salem South stood first among the three urban constituences with 75.46 per cent.

More men voted than women except in Salem North where 95722 women cast their votes as against a total of 94832 men voters.In the Lok Sabha constituency thereare a total of 16,58,681 bonafide voters (Men 8,28,152are women 8,30,307 and others (Transgenders) 222 people) . As manyas 172 Zonal Officers have been appointed to monitorsmooth polling at polling centres. Also, 235 pollingstations in 11 assembly constituencies across Salemdistrict have been classified as tense and 15 pollingstations as highly tense. Ensuring the integrity andsecurity of the polling process particularly in areasidentified as sensitive, 172 Zonal Officers have beenappointed to oversee operations at these pollingcenters.

235 polling stations across 11 assemblyconstituencies in Salem district have been classifiedbased on tension levels, with 15 polling stations deemedhighly tense. Heightened security measures are in placeto safeguard the electoral process. However the polling was incident free barring 2 deaths of senior citizings in the polling stations at Sendharapatti and Sooramangalam. Mild tension prevailed at Ekattur in Idanganasalai and Yercaud tribal village Sengalathupaddi were people resorted to poll boycott over local civic demands. However the situation was diffused by officials.

EVMS sealed and kept in strong rooms amidst tight security:

As many as  4,264 electronic voting machines,2,132 control devices, and 2,307 vote verificationdevices (VVPAT) were deployed in 1,766 pollingstations across the Salem. After the pollling was warpped up, the voting machines, control units and VVPATs were taken to the counting centre at the Government Engineering College in Karuppur amid tight security. The EVMs’ sealing process began today in the presence of all party representatives under the District Election Officer and Collector Dr R Brindadevi. The EVMs are being sealed and stored in strong rooms with double locking system. A multilayered armed security blanket has been thrown around the centre comprising para military and the state police.