Assam votes in final leg of elections

An Indian security personnel keeps guard as villagers stand in a queue before casting their vote yesterday for the second phase of the State Assembly elections at Udalguri near the India-Bhutan border, some 120 km from Guwahati, the capital city of Assam state. A man was killed and a paramilitary soldier abducted from a polling station in the India's insurgency-hit state during the final phase of local elections. PHOTO: AFP

Police said the teacher was gunned down in Kokrajhar district, 220km from the state capital Guwahati.

"We feel the killing was done to settle political scores and that it was not insurgency-related," a police spokesman said.

The paramilitary soldier, abducted at gunpoint by insurgents, had been guarding a polling station against possible fraud in eastern Karbi Anglong district, the spokesman added.

The poll was held in two rounds for security reasons. In the first phase of the ballot on April 3, turnout touched 75 percent.

"Polling in the last phase of elections concluded with preliminary estimates indicating a turnout of about 60 to 65 percent," an election official told AFP.

The results from both phases of voting are due on May 11.

Despite the relative calm during the elections in a state where at least a dozen insurgent groups operate, the authorities deployed at least 50,000 police and paramilitary troops for Monday's vote. At least 10,000 people have been killed in the past two decades.

New Delhi is in talks with representatives of Assam's main rebel group, the United Liberation Front of Asom.

The main parties contesting the polls are the nationally-ruling Congress party and the opposition right-wing party, Asom Gana Parishad.