With a cumulative polling percentage of 81.86, Andhra Pradesh has emerged as the first State to have registered the highest voter turnout during the first four of the seven-phase general elections conducted so far across the country.
People of the State had on May 13 exercised their franchise in the elections conducted to 25 Lok Sabha and 175 Assembly constituencies, and the Election Commission of India (ECI) declared the cumulative details on May 15 (Wednesday).
Addressing the media at the Secretariat at Velagapudi here, State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Mukesh Kumar Meena said that the cumulative polling percentage included 80.66 through EVMs and 1.2 through postal ballots, essential service and home votes.
There was an increase of about 1% in the votes polled though EVMs in 2024 when compared with the elections conducted in 2019, the CEO said. While 79.77% polling was registered in 2019, the figure was 78.41% in 2014.
Ongole Lok Sabha constituency recorded the highest polling percentage of 87.06, while Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha constituency registered the lowest of 71.11, Mr. Meena said.
Though the polling percentage in Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha constituency was less with compared with the remaining 24 constituencies, the voter turnout was more than 4% when compared with the elections conducted 2019 when it registered a polling percentage of 67, he added.
When it comes to Assembly constituencies, Darsi, with a polling percentage of 90.91, topped the chart, while Tirupati recorded the lowest of 63.32, Mr. Meena said, and added that the figure in Tirupati was low because of the stringent measures taken to check bogus votes in the constituency.
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Out of the total voters of 4,13,33,702 in the State, who included 2,02,74,144 male, 2,10,56,137 female and 3,421 third gender, as many as 3,33,40,560 voters had cast their vote in the EVMs. They included 1,64,30,359 male, 1,69,08,684 female and 1,517 third gender, the CEO said.
“Due to various reasons, there is a mismatch of 227 votes between those polled in the Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies. The Lok Sabha constituencies recorded 227 more votes,” he said.
While claiming that Andhra Pradesh recorded a highest turnout in the country, Mr. Meena said that the State that followed was West Bengal with 80.3% polling.
Mr. Meena attributed the delay in declaration of the final details to various reasons, including bad weather condition, continuation of polling beyond the stipulated hours at various polling stations, problems encountered in transporting the EVMs and election material from the polling stations to the strong rooms, and holding post-poll meetings with the political parties and Returning Officers by the observers.
The CEO said that there were about 5,600 polling stations having more than 1,200 votes in the State. He added that the polling continued even after 6 p.m. on May 13 at more than 3,500 polling stations, and the last vote was exercised at around 2 a.m. on May 14.
