The Chief Electoral Officer in Karnataka has said that as per initial reports voters turnout was over 68 percent at the close of polling for the Assembly election today. He also added that voting was peaceful in all parts of the state. After a brief period of lukewarm response, the polling picked up once again after 3.00 pm in various parts of the state. Apart from a few minor untoward incidents, the polling went on peacefully. Important candidates in the fray are Chief Minister Jagadish Shetter, Deputy Chief Ministers R Ashoka and K S Eshwarappa from BJP, former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, KPCC State President G Parameshwar, former Union minister of State for Information and Broadcasting M H Ambareesh from Congress and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, former minister in the state H D Revanna from JD(S). The former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa is contesting from Karnataka Janatha Party. There was good turnout in this Assembly election, which is an improvement over the Assembly election held in 2008. In the previous election the voters turnout was little over 64 percent. Around 18 lakh names were added newly to the voters list this time. Around 69 percent of the total population was covered during this election. Hence the voters turn out was good in several districts, especially in North Karnataka. Our Chickmagalur and Udupi Correspondents have informed that voters turnout was good in naxal affected areas in Western Ghats covered areas of the districts. A farmer in Chikmagalur was trampled by a wild tusker when he was proceeding to vote in Phalguni village. The tusker which had entered the village from a nearby forest attacked people going to vote. Dattu Agarwal, the President of Bharathiya Welfare Association for the Blind in Gulbarga has expressed happyness over availability of braille in the EVM. He said it was nice that he could cast vote without any assistance. Total candidates in fray are 2940 out of which 2770 are male and 170 are female candidates. The counting of votes will be on May 8th.