Voter turnout over 70 pc in last phase polls in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: A voter turnout of 70.67 per cent was recorded on Saturday in six Lok Sabha constituencies and 42 Assembly segments in Odisha.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) N B Dhal said till 7 pm, around 64.59 per cent of over 99.61 lakh voters exercised their franchise in Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur parliamentary constituencies along with 42 Assembly segments coming under these Lok Sabha seats. Lok Sabha and Assembly elections were held simultaneously in the State.

Mayurybhanj Lok Sabha seat recorded a voter turnout of 73.81 per cent, Jagatsinghpur (73.06), Balasore (70.41), Bhadrak (70.34), Kendrapara (68.64) and Jajpur (67.91). Among the Assembly seats, Bangiriposi saw the highest polling of 77.52 per cent and Aul the lowest at 62.38 per cent.

The Chief Electoral Officer said the voting percentage is expected to touch at least 75 per cent, considering the long queues of people in polling stations and the trend in previous phases. “The overall voter turnout in the four phases is also expected to increase to around 75 per cent after compilation of the final data which is our internal target for the 2024 general elections,” he said. In 2019 polls, the figure was around 73 per cent.

In Bhadrak, a man stabbed his wife to death while she was standing in a queue to cast her vote at Muktadihi village. He was arrested while the body was sent for postmortem. The victim was identified as Rashmirekha Behera of Jaragambhira village under Bhadrak Rural police station and her husband Prabhakar Rout of Muktadihi village.

They married 5 years ago, and the accused’s wife was staying with her parents due to a marital dispute between them. She had come to cast her vote in Muktadihi village along with her parental uncle.

Sixty-six candidates are in the fray in the Lok Sabha seats, while 394 nominees are contesting the Assembly segments in the fourth and last phase of simultaneous polls in Odisha.