Odisha Bypoll: 68.98% Voter Turnout In Dhamnagar

Bhubaneswar: Voter turnout for the bypoll to Dhamnagar Assembly constituency in Odisha was on Friday put at 68.98 per cent, down from 72.64 per cent polling recorded in the segment in the 2019 elections.

After the close of polling held on Thursday, an estimated 66.63 per cent of the over 2.38 lakh voters were stated to have exercised their franchise when a large number of voters were still in queue at the booths. The exact percentage of polling was yet to be available.

The final turnout figure of 68.98 per cent released by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday was marginally higher than the tentative percentage of polling calculated earlier for the bypoll in the constituency in Bhadrak district.

Of the 2,38,417 voters in the constituency, a total of 1,64,465, including 85,452 women, 79,011 men and two members of the third sex have exercised their franchise in the by-election, according to ECI.

Polling for by-election, which was held on Thursday amid tight security, remained largely peaceful barring some stray incidents.

In the 2019 assembly election, 72.64 per cent of voters cast their votes, while it was 73.46 per cent in 2014.

Elaborate arrangements and tight security measures have been taken to ensure the safety of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) and smooth counting of votes on November 6, according to state’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S K Lohani.