80% caste their vote in Aquem bypoll

COLVA: The re-polling at booth No. 8 of Margao constituency at T B.Cunha High School, Aquem, passed off peacefully on Tuesday. It recorded a 79.89% turnout, taking the tally of Margao consitutney as a whole to 78.68%.
This was the only constituency in which re-polling was ordered, due to a ‘technical error’ in the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM).
The Election Commission of India, while ordering the re-poll with a fresh EVM, also changed the staff manning it, replacing Gokuldas Naik with Nikhiljith Unnikrishnan as presiding officer.
The booth, which has a total of 791 voters, saw long queues early in the day, so voters could cast their ballot and proceed to work. A large police force patrolled the area, since the vicinity of booth no. 8 is a busy area, frequently experiencing traffic snarls.
By noon, as many as 426 voters had cast their votes. Unnikrishnan told TOI said that polling went off very smoothly, and that there were no glitches in the functioning of the EVMs this time around.
Some officer associated with polling told TOI they were expecting some backlash from voters for having to come second time, but nothing of the sort happened. Election agents of the candidates, too, voiced their satisfaction of the re-poll and the efficient manner in which was being conducted.
At the time of closing the re-poll, the EVM recorded 632 out of 791 votes, and data available with the presiding officer indicated that 294 males and 338 females had cast their franchise to mark the end of polling for the state assembly elections.