The Election Commission has updated the voter turnout in the Assembly polls in Kozhikode district to 78.42%.
Officials said that Kunnamangalam Assembly segment witnessed the highest voter turnout (81.55%) and Kozhikode north the lowest (73.85%). The overall turnout is likely to increase when postal votes are added to the tally. As of now, 33,734 voters have cast their votes through the postal facility.
Voters above 80 years of age, COVID-19 patients, those undergoing quarantine and differently abled persons are eligible for postal voting. Electors in the essential services category also exercised their franchise from March 28.
The following are the segment-wise voter turnout — Vadakkara 79.33.%; Kuttiyadi 81.30%; Nadapuram 78.85%; Koyilandy 77.57%; Perambra 79.77%; Balussery 78.18%; Elathur 78.08%; Kozhikode North 73.85%; Kozhikode South 74.25%; Beypore 77.97%; Kunnamangalam 81.55%; Koduvally 80.04%; and Thiruvambady 77.04%.
Of the 25,58,679 voters in the electoral list, 20,06,605 cast their votes at polling booths. They included 9,59,273 out of the 12,39,212 male voters (77.40%) and 10,47,316 out of the 13,19, 416 female voters (79.37 %). Sixteen out of the 51 transgender voters also exercised their franchise.
Low turnout
Meanwhile, political fronts are keeping their fingers crossed following the low turnout in the district. Some of the keenly contested seats remained unpredictable. Kozhikode has topped in voter turnout in the State, but it also meant that over 5 lakh voters stayed away from Assembly polls. The turnout was 81.89% and 81.27% in the 2011 and 2016 Assembly polls respectively.
Many reasons have been attributed to the low voter turnout when compared to previous polls. One of the reasons could be the increase in the number of voters in each constituency and another is the double entry of names in the electoral rolls.
