A total of 74.45 per cent of 94.48 lakh voters exercised their franchise in the simultaneous third phase of elections to six Lok Sabha seats and 42 assembly constituencies in Odisha on Saturday, an official said.
Voting was held in 10,581 booths in Sambalpur, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, and Puri Lok Sabha seats, along with 42 assembly segments under these parliamentary constituencies.
“This (74.45 percent) is the final voter turnout excluding postal ballots,” the official said.
Sambalpur registered the highest turnout at 79.50 per cent, followed by Keonjhar (78.97), Dhenkanal (78.01), Puri (75.43), Cuttack (71.20), and Bhubaneswar (64.49). In 2019, the turnout in these six seats was 71.36 per cent.
Among the assembly constituencies, Athamalik recorded the highest turnout at 85.69 per cent, followed by Chhendipada (84.36), Pallahara (82.98), and Kuchinda (82.89).
Bhubaneswar-North (53.93 per cent), Bhubaneswar-Central (51.23), and Barabati-Cuttack (57.48) recorded the lowest turnouts.
Voting was largely peaceful, barring some isolated incidents of clashes, EVM malfunctioning, and complaints of names missing from voters’ lists.
Meanwhile, the office of the CEO, in a statement, said more than 90,000 electors used postal ballots to cast their votes in the simultaneous elections in Odisha till the third phase of polling on May 25.
Differently-abled persons, senior citizens, people engaged in emergency services, and government employees deputed on election duties were eligible to use postal ballots to exercise their franchise.
“Till the end of the third round of elections to Lok Sabha and assembly in the state, around 94,000 postal ballots have been used by the eligible persons to cast their votes,” the statement said.
Elderly persons of 85 years and above also availed the facility of home voting, introduced in the state for the first time in this election, to exercise their franchise.