New Delhi: The national capital registered its highest-ever voter turnout of 65.86 per cent in the keenly contested Assembly polls with men and women coming out in almost equal numbers to vote.
Delhi's Election Commission today said out of 1.19 crore eligible voters, over 78.1 lakh people exercised their franchise yesterday. The number of first-time eligible voters is 4.05 lakh.
In 2008 Assembly polls, the overall voting percentage was 57.58 while in 1993, it was 61.75 per cent. As high as 65.78 per cent men and 65.17 per cent women cast their ballot in the three-cornered contest among Congress, BJP and debutant Aam Aadmi Party.
Moreover, a record number of 43,015 postal ballot by government official on poll duty was also cast in the election, whereas this figure was meagre 1,600 in the 2008 assembly polls.
Of 562 people in other (transgender) category, 206 cast vote.
The highest turnout was recorded in the Seemapuri seat (72.19 per cent), while the lowest polling was in Rajendra Nagar with 59.67 per cent.
Among the nine districts, the highest turnout of 68.48 per cent was recorded in North-East, while the lowest polling was recorded in North West district with 63.25 per cent.
In an unprecedented exercise, voting went on till 9.30 PM --four-and-a-half hours past the 5 PM voting deadline—when the last ballot was cast by waiting voters in a booth in Okhla Assembly segment.
The stunning voter turnout that shattered the previous highest of 61.75 per cent in the first elections to the state Assembly in 1993 saw voting hours being extended in several polling booths beyond the closing time of 5 PM as around 1.7 lakh voters were still waiting in winding queues.
“It was an incident-free election, although a few cases of minor scuffle were reported from some areas. Model Code of Conduct was strictly implemented to provide a level playing field to all political parties,” Delhi's Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Dev said.
