 "LS elections: Phase 1 turnout at 66.14%, Phase 2 at 66.71%, says EC")
A voter turnout of 66.14 per cent was recorded in phase one and 66.71 per cent in phase two of the ongoing Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission said on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the Congress, CPI-M and TMC questioned the EC over the delay in announcing the final voter turnout figures for the first two phases of the Lok Sabha polls, 11 days after the first round of polling on April 19.
Officially sharing the turnout figure, the poll panel said in phase one of the elections, 66.22 per cent of male and 66.07 female electors turned up to vote. The turnout for registered third-gender voters stood at 31.32 per cent.
In the 2019 polls, the turnout in the first phase stood at 69.43 per cent.
In the second phase of elections held on April 26, the male voter turnout was recorded at 66.99 per cent, while the female turnout stood at 66.42 per cent. As many as 23.86 per cent of the registered third-gender voters came out to vote.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in phase two, the turnout was 69.64 per cent.
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In phase one, 102 seats went to poll, while in phase two elections were held in 88 constituencies.
According to the poll panel, out of 21 states and union territories which went to polls in the first phase, 11 recorded a higher turnout of women voters. These are Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
In the second phase where 13 states and UTs went to poll, six registered a higher women voter turnout. These are Assam, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Kerala and West Bengal.
The EC made it clear that the final turnout will only be available post-counting with the counting of postal ballots and its addition to the total vote count.
Postal ballots include postal ballots given to service voters, absentee voters -- those above 85 years of age, persons with disabilities, those on essential services and voters on election duty.
Daily accounts of such postal ballots received are given to all candidates, it noted.
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