THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: High turnout of voters were recorded in the first phase of local body polls. After seven and a half hours since the first phase of voting commenced, polling rate has crossed 55 per cent. Long queues of voters were witnessed in majority of the polling booths in five districts which went for polls in the first phase of elections held on Tuesday. In certain areas, the voting process was disrupted due to technical errors in voting machines.

Compared to previous elections record turnout was witnessed in southern districts in the local body polls. Long queues of voters were witnessed in municipalities and corporations. As of now highest poll percentage was recorded in Alappuzha and Idukki stands second. Lowest was recorded in Thiruvananthapuram. It’s uncommon in Thiruvananthapuram to see the polling rate crossing 50 percentage before evening.

Two persons collapsed and died while waiting in queue for voting. Puttuparambil Mattayi from Pathanamthitta and Balan, a native of Mahadevikadu in Alappuzha are the dead persons. Many took part in the voting process ignoring age-related ailments and other restrictions. Even though the voters used facemasks and sanitisers, they were not able to follow the social distancing norms in many areas.