Voters queued up at a polling station in Shopian. (File image/News18)
The female voter turnout was 70.02% against men’s 69.37% in the third and final phase of polling that took place on October 1. Of the 23 seats under the third phase with better female turnout, five were from the Kashmir region – Karnah, Lolab, Handwara, Uri, and Gurez. The remaining 18 seats were from the Jammu division
With at least 23 seats from the third phase of the Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls witnessing better female voter turnout, a total of 40 constituencies saw more women casting votes than men across the union territory, data issued by the Election Commission of India on Thursday shows.
The female voter turnout was 70.02% against men’s 69.37% in the third and final phase of polling that took place on October 1.
Of the 23 seats under the third phase with better female turnout, five were from the Kashmir region – Karnah, Lolab, Handwara, Uri, and Gurez. The remaining 18 seats were from the Jammu division.
This was the highest number of seats from the Kashmir region in a phase when the female voters outnumbered men. In the first two phases, held last month, just one seat each from Kashmir saw higher female voter turnout.
In the first phase, when 24 seats went for polls on September 18, six seats – five from Jammu division while one, Kokernag, from Kashmir – saw higher women voter participation. In the second phase, held on September 25, at least 11 out of 26 seats saw higher female voter turnout than male with just one seat from Kashmir.
In total, seven seats from Kashmir saw more women turn out and the remaining 33 were from the Jammu division.
The 90-seat J&K assembly witnessed polls in three phases starting from September 18. The third and the last phase was held on October 1.
The average male voter turnout across the 90 seats was 64.68% while the women’s turnout was 63.04%. Overall, a 63.88% turnout has been recorded at polling stations in the J&K assembly elections, as against 58.58% in the April-June Lok Sabha polls.
Across the newly formed union territory, at least 11 seats saw women’s voter turnout close to or above 80% – Chhamb (83.53%), Inderwal (82.90%), Udhampur East (82.30%), Marh (81.08%), Chenani (80.99%), Akhnoor (80.89%), Padder-Nagseni (80.57%), Shri Mata Vaishno Devi (80.08%), Kishtwar (79.93%), Gurez(79.85%), and Billawar (79.77%).
On the other hand, just four seats saw male voter turnout above 80% – Marh (81.83%), Inderwal (81.47%), Shri Mata Vaishno Devi (80.78%), and Padder-Nagseni (80.77%).
There were five seats where the average voter turnout was above 80%, including Inderwal (82.16%), Marh (81.47%), Padder-Nagseni (80.45%), Shri Mata Vaishno Devi (80.45%), and Chhamb (80.34%).
Hazratbal, Tral and Pampore were the three worst-performing seats in terms of average voter turnout as well as female turnout. The female voter turnout was 27.71%, 37.92%, and 39.47% for the three seats respectively while the average turnout was 32.39%, 43.56%, and 45.01%.
The results for all 90 seats will be declared on October 8 along with Haryana.
