Kerala Is Leading The Way With A Record 77.7% Voter Turnout In The Lok Sabha Elections

The Lok Sabha Elections 2019 which began on April 11 will conclude on May 19 followed by the results on 23rd.

The election has been divided into seven phases and we have already completed three phases. And if there is one thing in common in all the three phases is the voter turn out.

In the first phase, the voter turnout the 91 Lok Sabha seats spread across 18 states and two Union Territories (UTs) was 69.43 percent. In the second phase, polling where voters from 95 Lok Sabha constituency exercised their franchise the turnout was 66 percent.

BCCL

And on Tuesday, where 17 constituencies across 115 states voted in the third phase, the voter turnout was 65.61%.

With the third phase voting, the election has been concluded in 22 states and union territories.

While the turnout is not bad and is almost equal to the figures in 2014 there is increasing worry about the voters losing interest in the world's largest democratic exercises.

This is especially true in metro cities, which in the past too had a poor track record.

BCCL

With 240 seats still to vote and four phases still remaining there are fears that the figures could look even bleak.

But on Tuesday Kerala stood out as an exemption - with an average voter turnout of 77.68 percent. This is the highest voter turnout recorded in the state since 1989.

Kannur had the highest voter turnout with 83.05% of the eligible voters exercising their franchise, Thiruvananthapuram which saw one of the strongest three-way fights in the state from where Congress's Shashi Tharoor is seeking re-election saw the lowest at 73.45 percent.

BCCL

What is even more impressive is that eight of the 8 seats including Wayanad from where Congress President Rahul Gandhi is contesting saw more than 80 percent voter turnout.

Across the state, since polling began on 7 AM large crowds were seen queuing outside the booths. This continued even after 6 PM, the stipulated closure time. The queue was such massive that there are reports that voting went on till 10 PM in the night in some polling booths.