An estimated 81 per cent of the electorate exercised their franchise for the Assembly polls in the district on Monday.
The voting passed off peacefully except for minor incidents such as delay in polling in some booths following damage in the electronic voting machines. A 71-year old voter, Kaithampoyil Kunhamed, who was in queue, collapsed and died in Perambra constituency.
The total electorate was 23,59,731 spread over 13 Assembly constituencies. This included 78,432 new voters and 6,913 NRI voters. Tight security was provided in over 1,900 polling stations including auxiliary booths.
Of this, 65 were model booths and 15, women-only booths. Webcasting was facilitated in about 400-odd identified sensitive booths.
The electorate in Kozhikode North Assembly segment had the facility of verifying their votes via VVPAT enabled voting machines.
District Collector N. Prasanth, who is also the district election officer, said that the election was conducted in a fair and smooth manner with the cooperation of all the departments.
“No major untoward incident has been reported from anywhere,” he added.
The last time the turnout was 81.27 per cent. The voter turnout in the district for the Assembly elections held in 2006 and 2001 was 75.47 and 76.20 per cent respectively. The final figure is likely to go up after tallying the service and postal votes.
The voter turnout showed the inconsistency in the voting behaviour of rural and urban voters.
Urban apathy was clearly visible as polling percentage was comparatively low in Kozhikode North , Kozhikode South that came under Kozhikode Corporation and Elathur and Beypore, the neighbouring constituencies.
Vadakara, Kunnamangalam, Koduvally, Balussery, Perambra and Kuttiyadi which witnessed high- voltage campaigns, either increased or maintained the polling percentage than that of the previous polls.
Vadakara witnessed a four- cornered electoral battle with the Congress making an all-out bid to wrest the Kunnamangalam seat from LDF-backed Independent.
Likewise, Koduvally is another segment that saw intense electioneering between the Razaks of Indian Union Muslim League and a party rebel backed by LDF.
The polling percentages recorded at various constituencies are as follows: Then figures given in brackets were of the polls held in 2011:
Vadakara – 81.21 (80.46); Kuttiyadi -83.59 (87.17); Nadapuram- 80.45 (81.38); Koyilandy -78 (81.63); Perambra- 85.56 (84.29); Balussery- 85.20 (81.5); Elathur – 81.93 (81.99); Kozhikode North -76.97 (77.06); Kozhikode South-77.35 (77.93); Beypore-75.22 (78.71); Kunnamangalam- 82.60 (83.95); Koduvally-81 (79.65) and Thiruvambady -79 (79.11)
