Except One, Webcasting Done At All Polling Stations In 5 Assembly Bypolls: EC

New Delhi, Jun 19 (PTI) Webcasting was done at all but one polling station of the five Assembly seats that went to bypolls on Thursday, the Election Commission said.

A total of 1,354 polling stations were set up for the five bypolls in four states and webcasting was held at 1,353, the poll authority said.

Earlier this week, the EC had decided to ensure webcasting at 100 per cent polling stations from now on. Till recently, webcasting was done in 50 per cent of the polling stations. Besides, it was done at sensitive polling stations.

The bypolls were held in five Assembly segments of Punjab, West Bengal, Gujarat and Kerala and 100 per cent webcasting was implemented for the first time.

The EC decided on 100 per cent webcasting of the polling process to ensure greater transparency. Webcasting is an internal poll-management tool being used by the EC.

This was also the first time the EC provided a mobile phone deposit facility to voters.

The deposit centres were set up outside polling stations. So far, no such facility was available and some voters hid phones in their clothes and carried those inside polling stations, which is against rules. 

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)

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