10.7% increase witnessed in voters in Himachal Pradesh, says poll official

The total number of electorates increased to 55.25 lakh in the 2022 assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh from 49.88 lakh in the 2017 polls -- an increase of 10.7 per cent, Chief Electoral Officer Maneesh Garg said here on Saturday.

They include 1.93 lakh first-time voters in the age of 18-19 years.

As against the number of electorates who voted in the 2017 assembly polls, excluding postal ballots of service and election duty voters, were 37.27 lakh which increased to 41.60 lakh this time, excluding postal ballot voters, registering an increase of 11.6 per cent, he said.

"There is an increase of 5.37 lakh voters and the number of votes polled increased by 4.33 lakh in 2022," he said.

From this data analysis, it can be inferred that the voting percentage of the newly enrolled voters since 2017 was nearly 80.5 per cent in the 2022 assembly elections, he added.

--IANS

vg/pgh