Kakinada, April 16^th: For the phase-I elections held at Rampachodavaram constituency in East Godavari district on Thursday, approximately 60% of voters turned out to exercise their franchise. This was less compared to the polling done in the same area in 2004 elections. Though the voting percentage was found to be very little in the initial hours it picked up momentum after 11 am. The polling stared at 7am and continued till 4 pm. Expecting 1.39 lakh voters to franchise their vote 196 polling stations were arranged by the authorities.

Few of the voters complained about not finding their names in the electoral rolls even after they registered for the same a long ago. At polling booth in Addateegala nearly 100 voters could not find their name in the list. Few of the voters who were not issued with Eletoral Photo Identity Cards are made to cast their vote with alternative identifications. There were reports of failure of electronic voting machines at Addateegala, Pothavaram, Penikilapadu, Sithapalli and Vanchangi. However they were replaced with the alternative EVMs.