Final turnout 62.8% in Punjab, shows EC data
CHANDIGARH: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday stated that 62.8% electorate exercised their franchise in the 13 Lok Sabha constituencies of Punjab on Saturday, recording a 4.8% dip than 67.6% of the previous elections in 2019. In 2014, the polling percentage was 70.6, means 7.8% more than this year’s figure.
On Saturday, 1,34,78,134 voters, out of 2,14,61,741, turned up at polling stations while more than one-third (79,83,607) stayed indoors. Higher temperatures on the polling day is said to have affected the turnout. Out of 1,12,86,727 male voters in the state, 71,41,554 (63.27%) voted and among the 1,01,74,241 female voters, 62.28% (63,36,300) came out to vote.
The delay in release of poll percentage figures was attributed to a large number of voters who turned up late in the evening, just before 6 pm, the time for wrapping up the process. A large number of polling booths in the state saw long queues till late in the evening. “Collecting and authenticating data from over 24,000 stations took time, leading to a delay in compilation,” said an officer of the election commission.
The figures show the Bathinda Lok Sabha segment recording the highest voting of 69.36%, followed by Ferozpur 67.02% and Gurdaspur 66.67%. Amritsar constituency recorded the lowest turnout of 56.06% while the polling was 58.86% in Hoshiarpur and 59.70% in Jalandhar.
There were 328 candidates in the fray with 26 female nominees who were engaged in long campaigning for 76 days in a multi-corner contest and waveless election. Polling in the state was held in the last and seventh phase along with four parliament seats in Himachal Pradesh and one in Chandigarh.
As per the election commission’s data, the assembly constituency of Sardulgarh, falling in the Bathinda constituency, recorded the highest polling of 73.72% among all 117 assembly constituencies, followed by 73.71% in Sujanpur (Gurdaspur) and 71.83% in Fazilka (Ferozpur). Amritsar-west and Amritsarsouth, both in the Amritsar parliamentary segment, recorded the lowest polling of 48.10% and 49.73%, and Bholath in Hoshiarpur parliament recorded 51.73%.