Tripura, Rajasthan and Delhi to get awards for poll management

Three states - Tripura, Rajasthan and Delhi - will be awarded by the Election Commission for best management during the recent assembly polls, officials said here Friday.

"President Pranab Mukherjee would hand over the awards to the Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of Tripura, Rajasthan and Delhi at a function at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi Saturday," Tripura CEO Ashutosh Jindal told reporters.

Since 2011, National Voters Day has been observed on Jan 25 across the country to enlighten people about the significance of elections.

Jindal, who was the international observer from India in the national assembly polls in Cambodia July 28 last year, said the three states (Tripura, Rajasthan and Delhi) in the recent assembly elections, have shown exemplary instances of high voter turnout and smooth and peaceful conduct of polling.

Tripura made electoral history when a record 93.61 percent votes were cast in last year's Feb 14 election to the 60-seat assembly.

"Since the first elections in 1952 in the country, this was an all-time high percentage of votes polled in any election in India," Jindal said.

Tripura recorded around 92 percent polling in the 2008 assembly elections.

Like the previous elections in Tripura, women voters outnumbered their male counterparts in the exercise of their franchise in last year's (Feb 14) assembly polls.

"In all, 93.57 percent of the 11,56,476 female voters have exercised their franchise in the polls and this was 2.13 percent higher than their male counterparts," Jindal said.