Re-polling underway in five polling booths in AP

: Re-polling is on at a brisk pace in five polling booths in three districts of Andhra Pradesh Monday.

About 16 per cent of polling was reported overall in the first two hours after the process began, Election Commission officials here said.

The re-poll has been ordered in view of technical glitches in electronic voting machines in these polling booths.

Accordingly, re-polling is being held in polling booth 94 pertaining to Narsaraopet Assembly and Lok Sabha segments, polling booth 244 of Guntur West Assembly and Lok Sabha segments in Guntur district; 247 of Yerragondapalem Assembly and Ongole Lok Sabha segments.

Repolling is also being held in booth 41 of Kovur Assembly segment under Nellore Lok Sabha constituency and 197 of Sullurupeta Assembly segment under Tirupati parliamentary constituency.

Officials expect polling to slow down a bit till evening because of the extreme heat wave, with temperature crossing over 44 degrees Celsius.

Polling will continue till 6 p.m.

Elaborate security arrangements have been made at each polling booth to prevent untoward incidents, according to state Chief Electoral Officer Gopal Krishna Dwivedi.

Elections for 25 Lok Sabha and 175 Assembly seats were held in one go on April 11 in the state.

Counting of votes will be taken up on May 23.