Kerala records over 73 per cent polling by 7 pm

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 6 (PTI) At least 73.58 per cent
of the total 2.74 crore voters exercised their franchise for
the state assembly elections according to a preliminary
assessment when polling drew to a close at 7 pm in Kerala on
Tuesday,the Election Commission of India said.
    The massive exercise following COVID-19 health
protocol involving over two lakh polling officers began at 7
AM and the last hour from 6 PM to 7 PM was set aside for
COVID-19 patients and those under isolation.
     The ECI said 73.69 per cent of male voters, 73.48 per
cent of female voters and 37.37 per cent of transgender voters
exercised their franchise as per the preliminary assessment
till 6.55 PM.
     The state witnessed massive turnout till afternoon
but incessant rain in central Kerala reduced the footfall
later.
     Polling was held for 140 assembly constituencies of
Kerala across 40,771 polling stations in the state.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan (Dharmadam), leader
of opposition in the state assembly Ramesh Chennithala
(Haripad), senior Congress leader Oommen Chandy (Puthupally),
BJP state president, K Surendran (Konni and Manjeswaram) and
'Metro Man' E Sreedharan, (Palakkad) were among those who had
voted.
    Besides Vijayan, 11 of his cabinet colleagues are
among the 957 candidates in the fray.
    The 2016 Assembly elections saw 77.53 per cent
voter turnout, while the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 saw a
participation of77.84 per cent electors.
    Local body polls in 2020 saw a voter turnout of76.2
per cent. PTI RRT
BN BN

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)