63% turnout in 1st-phase voting

IN 2017, A TURNOUT OF 66.79% WAS RECORDED IN THE 89 SAME SEATS

GANDHINAGAR: The Election Commission announced on Friday that the first phase of the Gujarat assembly elections across 89 seats recorded a turnout of 63.31%, a dip of nearly four percentage points from the figure in these constituencies five years ago.

In 2017, a turnout of 66.79% was recorded in the same seats in the first phase of polling.

Narmada district registered the maximum turnout of 78.42%, according to the poll body. The tribal-dominated district of Tapi recorded the second-highest polling percentage of 77.04%.

Botad in Saurashtra region registered the lowest turnout of 57.59%. Amreli district followed closely with 57.60% .

More than 10 districts recorded more than 60% voting.

Surat district recorded 62.23% voting and Rajkot 60.63%.

“Barring a few incidents, the polling was largely peaceful,” Gujarat chief electoral officer P Bharti said.

“At some places, voting was halted at a few places due to malfunctioning of Electronic Voting Machines as well as control units and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPATS) but the faulty units were replaced and the process resumed very quickly,” she added.

As many as 788 candidates were in the fray in the 89 seats across 19 districts of south Gujarat and parts of the Kutch and Saurashtra regions. Around 23.9 million of the total 43.5 million voters of the state were eligible to exercise their franchise on Thursday.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is hoping to consolidate its position in a region it faced some setbacks five years ago and safeguard its bastion from the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is looking to make gains in its maiden outing.

In these 89 seats in 2017, the BJP won 48 with a vote share of 49.3%, and the Congress won 38 with 41.7% votes.