Six days after the Assembly elections, data released by the Chief Electoral Officer of Uttarakhand put the voter turnout at 65.64%, which is lower than the official figure declared soon after the polling was over.
In the evening of February 15, Chief Electoral Officer Radha Raturi announced the turnout to be 68% based on a preliminary estimate. She had, however, said the final figure was awaited.
In the 2012 elections, the polling percentage was 67.22, which is 1.6 percentage points higher than the turnout now.“Though the polling percentage is lower than that in 2012, we had 6.5 lakh more voters this time. So I don’t see it as a low turnout. In fact, the total voter turnout was high despite the cold weather, with over 400 polling booths in snowbound areas. Also, the polls were peaceful,” Ms. Raturi told The Hindu .
The plains district of Udham Singh Nagar record the highest turnout of 75.79%. The lowest of 52.81% was recorded in the hill district of Almora.
No one voted in seven of the 10,685 booths across Uttarkashi, Almora and Pithoragarh districts.
Polling was held for 69 Assembly seats. Voting for the Karnaprayag seat has been postponed to March 9 following the death of the BSP candidate.
