ID cards pasted on their faces, voters queue outside a polling booth in Katwa. Picture by Dipankar Chatterjee

Calcutta, Sept. 16: The bypolls to the Malda, Katwa and Purulia Lok Sabha seats and the Bongaon Assembly constituency recorded a below-expectation turnout, though voters in many places were waiting in queue till late this evening.

Chief electoral officer Debashis Sen said there was an average of 63 per cent polling till five this afternoon — less than the turnout during the May Assembly elections, when over 70 per cent of voters across the state had exercised their franchise.

While 75 per cent polling was recorded in Bongaon, only 56 per cent voters turned up in Purulia. In Malda and Katwa, the voting percentage was 60 and 69, respectively.

“However, in many places people are still waiting to cast their votes. The last set of reports will reach us late,” Sen said.

The polling was peaceful barring a few incidents, he said.

A presiding officer at a booth in Kaliachak in Malda had to be replaced as he was said to have cast a vote on behalf of a blind man.

More than 300 voters of Kashigunge village in Burdwan district boycotted the polls to protest against the continuing erosion of the Bagirathi riverbank.

The finance minister announced last month that Rs 30 crore would be used for strengthening the riverbank, but nothing has been done so far,” alleged Radheshyam Saha, an elderly villager.

CPM state secretary Biman Bose described today’s polls as “free and fair’’.

He said voting began late at some booths because of technical hitches in electronic voting machines. “There was a problem in a Purulia booth and the EVM was not registering votes. For that, repolling has been ordered.”