The Election Commission on Sunday stated that the upward trend of voter turnout continued in the fourth of the five-phased Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls, adding that no untoward incident occurred during the elections.
"Three districts from Kashmir, namely Anantnag, Shopian and Srinagar and the Samba district in Jammu went to polls today. The overall assessment is that the polls were peaceful throughout phase four without any untoward incident reported. The upward trend of the voter turnout, which has been seen in the first three phases, has continued, with the overall poll percentage recorded being 49 percent," Deputy Election Commissioner Vinod Zutshi told the media.
"The final tally is expected to increase by a further one percent. This figure is around five percent more than the 2008 state elections and around 20 percent more than the 2014 Lok Sabha election figures," he added.
Zutshi further stated that barring Anantnag, which saw a slight drop in the voter turnout since the last assembly elections, the remaining three districts saw the polling percentage rise.
"Anantnag recorded 61 percent polling, a slight fall from the corresponding figures from 2008. Meanwhile, Srinagar saw 27 percent polling, while the figure for Shopian is 50 percent," he said.
"Samba recorded 81 percent polling, an increase from the 2008 figure of 76 percent," he added.
The final phase of the state assembly polls will take place on December 20, with the counting of the votes scheduled to take place on December 23.
