Bhubaneswar, Nov. 30: The Umerkote Assembly bypoll saw a 72 per cent turnout today, as voters defied a Maoist threat to exercise their franchise. Polling was peaceful.

Maoists had warned people against participating in the elections, putting up posters in the bordering areas of the constituency close to Chhattisgarh.

The posters had appeared at Timanpur, Haldi and Gona in Raighar block of the Umerkote constituency, which has 1.65 lakh voters.

Sources said polling at all the 167 booths was peaceful. Nabarangpur district collector Sibabrata Das said: “People turned up at the booths in an enthusiastic mood across the constituency. The election was peaceful and polling was smooth. Adequate security measures had been taken to ensure a peaceful election.”

Long queues were seen at most of the booths since 8am when polling started. Some people were seen outside the booths even after 4pm.

Jawans of the Special Operations Group, the CRPF and the India Reserve Battalion were seen patrolling the roads in the interior pockets of the constituency. Deputy inspector of general (southwestern) Soumendra Priyadarshi visited the area.

Chief electoral officer S. Srinivas said: “All the EVM machines will reach the counting centres tonight. All the machines worked properly.”

The fate of three candidates — the BJD’s Subas Gond, the BJP’s Dharmu Gond and the Congress’s Jatindra Gond — will be decided on December 4, when counting takes place. However, leaders of all the three parties exuded confidence that their candidates would emerge winner.

BJP senior leader and former minister Biswa Bhusan Harichandan said: “The BJD candidate had earlier worked for the people of the constituency. We are confident that party candidate Dharmu Gond will win the by-election.”

On the other hand, leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh said: “The ruling party had failed to do any good work for the people of the state. The people will certainly back the Congress candidate Jatindra Gond.”

However, the BJD leaders said the Congress and the BJP were daydreaming. “The BJD will get 50 per cent of the votes and the rest will be divided between the BJP and the Congress,” said BJD MLA Arun Sahu.