Shillong: Voters came out in huge numbers to elect their representative to the Williamnagar Assembly seat in Meghalaya's East Garo Hills on Friday with no untoward incident reported during polling.
Meghalaya chief electoral officer F.R. Kharkongor said the final turnout was 78.82 per cent. The turnout was slightly lower than that in the 2013 polls.
Williamnagar has 32,345 electorates spread across 58 polling booths.
Kharkongor said Rongreng Baiza polling station recorded the highest turnout with 92.5 per cent while the lowest was at Williamnagar Government LP School (East) booth with 55.7 per cent.
East Garo Hills deputy commissioner Ram Kumar said over phone there was no untoward incident during polling. "It was a very peaceful election," he said.
The election in Williamnagar, which was scheduled to be held on February 27 along with the remaining 59 constituencies, had to be countermanded following the killing of Nationalist Congress Party candidate Jonathone N. Sangma. On February 18, Jonathone was killed in an IED blast allegedly triggered by the GNLA near Sawilgre village, about 14km from Samanda block, in the district.
There are nine candidates in the fray including Congress nominee Deborah C. Marak, and National People's Party's Marcuise N. Marak. The seat was previously held by Deborah. The NCP fielded Jonathone's widow Krenilla Marak. The other candidates are Santosh R. Marak of the BJP, Mahamsingh M. Sangma of the United Democratic Party (UDP) and four Independents - Sengbath Marak, Lahatson Marak, Siljohn Marak and Jan Arengh.
Counting of votes will be held on May 1.
Intense campaigning by both the Congress and the NPP leaders, including chief minister Conrad K. Sangma, was witnessed as a win from Williamnagar would strengthen the parties' numbers in the Assembly. The Congress is the single largest party in the Assembly with 20 members while the NPP has 19 legislators.
In the 2013 Assembly polls, 80.88 per cent of electorate of Williamnagar had come out to cast their votes. Deborah had then defeated Jonathone, who had contested as an Independent nominee, by a margin of 2,877 votes.
