68% Polling for fifinal phase in J&K

 

THE third and final phase of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls on Tuesday saw a voter turnout of 68.72 per cent, surpassing the Lok Sabha poll figure in the corresponding seven districts, with the traditional boycott bastions of Sopore and Baramulla recording the highest turnout in an election in the last three decades. According to Election Commission (EC) data, the overall polling percentage in the three phases was 63.45 per cent. Officials said the polling went off peacefully in all segments including special polling stations along the International Border and Line of Control (LoC) with no untoward incident reported from anywhere. In the recently held parliamentary polls, the turnout in the seven districts that went to polls in the final phase on Tuesday was recorded at 66.78 per cent. The turnout in Phases 1 and 2 was also higher than in the Lok Sabha elections.

 

While seven districts in Phase 1 recorded 61.38 per cent turnout, the figure was 60 per cent in the general elections. Similarly, six districts that went to polls in Phase 2 recorded 57.31 per cent polling as compared to 52.17 per cent turnout in the Lok Sabha polls, according to available data. However, as compared to the 2014 Assembly elections, the third phase of polls in 40 Assembly segments across seven districts of Jammu, Udhampur, Kathua and Samba in Jammu region and Baramulla, Bandipora and Kupwara in north Kashmir recorded a marked dip in the overall percentage which was attributed mostly to the ongoing farming activities.

 

The majority of seats in the third phase registereda drop of1to 15 per centas comparedto2014except for Sopore, Baramulla, and Pattan constituencies where the figures have gone up this time. Sopore,onceaterroristandseparatiststronghold,recorded the lowest turnout of 41.44 per cent but it was far better than the 2014 polls when the seat recorded 30.79 per cent voting, the EC data showed. Baramulla,atraditionalboycottbastion,recordeda47.95 per cent turnout as against 39.73 per cent in 2014 while Pattan saw 60.87 per cent polling in comparison to 58.72 per cent recorded in the last Assembly polls.