71 pc voter turnout recorded

Bhubaneswar: A voter turnout of 71 per cent was recorded in Odisha’s six Lok Sabha seats and 42 Assembly constituencies where polling was held simultaneously in the State’s third round, an official said on Sunday.

Of the 94,48,553 voters, 70.99 per cent exercised their franchise on Saturday across 10,581 booths in Sambalpur, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Puri Lok Sabha seats, and the 42 Assembly constituencies that form them.

The Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat registered the highest turnout at 76.63 per cent, followed by Puri (73.81 per cent), Dhenkanal (73.69), Keonjhar (73.30), Cuttack (67.36) and Bhubaneswar (62). In 2019, the turnout in these six seats was 71.36 per cent. Among the Assembly constituencies, Athamalik recorded the highest turnout at 85.42 per cent, followed by Chhendipada (83.27), Pallahara (82.14) and Kuchinda (81.38). Bhubaneswar-North (51 per cent), Bhubaneswar-Central (51.19) and Barabati-Cuttack (55.17) recorded the lowest turnouts. The voting was largely peaceful, except for some isolated incidents of clashes, EVM malfunctioning and complaints of names missing from voters’ lists.