Average voting in initial hours of Delhi civic polls

New Delhi, April 15 (IANS) Around 12 to 15 percent voters turned up to exercise their franchise in the first three hours of polls to the trifurcated Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) Sunday, election officials said.

The election to 272 seats is expected to witness a tough fight between the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress. Voting began at 8 a.m. amid tight security.

"The voting percentage ranged between 12 to 15 percent for the first three hours. Since it is a Sunday, the turnout is likely to go up," a state election commission official said.

The election commission received some complaints of electronic voting machines (EVMs) malfunctioning in certain polling booths.

"Certain complaints of EVMs not working and voter slips not being distributed arrived from some polling booths. We are rectifying the technical problems," the official said.

Meanwhile women voters turned up in high numbers in the morning, the commission noticed.

Over one crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise to decide the fate of 2,423 candidates.

People queued up outside 11,543 booths across the capital to vote for elections to the newly trifurcated MCD. While the corporations of north and south have 104 wards each, the east Delhi corporation has 64.

A total of 30,000 armed police personnel have been deployed at the booths to ensure free and fair elections. The BJP, which rules the corporation, had swept the 2007 elections in the then unified MCD with 168 seats.

With the Delhi assembly elections due in end-2013, the results will have significant impact on the morale of the parties.

Polling ends at 5.30 p.m. Votes will be counted Tuesday.