Election Commission extends voting time by two hours

New Delhi: The Election Commission on Saturday extended the voting time by two hours for the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

Polling will now be held between 7 am and 6 pm across most parts of the country while it will be held between 7 am and 5 pm in the northeast region. Poll timing in Nagaland and Manipur has been fixed from 7 am to 4 pm, the poll panel said. "The Commission, after taking into account various factors such as extreme hot weather conditions and early sunrise and sunset in some regions, and to facilitate voters, has decided that poll shall be taken in all Parliamentary constituencies in general from 7 am to 6 pm. "The Commission expects that this decision will help voters to turn out in large numbers to exercise their franchise in the elections," the EC said. "Due to certain security parameters, in some other Parliamentary constituencies, poll have been fixed from 7 am to 4 pm," EC said in a note. The note was apparently referring to naxal-hit areas. Polling was earlier scheduled to be held between 8 am and 5 pm while in northeast it was to start at 7 am. It will now be held for 11 hours, up from nine hours, as the EC felt that more voters would turn up to cast the ballot towards evening when the weather cools.