AP politicos eagerly awaiting ECI’s poll percentage figure

VIJAYAWADA: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has not released the total number of votes polled in Andhra Pradesh even 24 hours after the polling has been completed.

This is leading to anxiety among various stakeholders, including political parties.

The ECI conducted the twin elections for 175 Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats in AP on Monday. A large number of voters turned up at the polling stations to cast their vote. Polling had been scheduled from 7 am to 6 pm on the day. But several incidents of violence and malfunctioning of EVMs led to polling time being extended for several hours in nearly 3,500 polling stations.

Poling continued up to 2 am on Tuesday in certain polling booths. Though the state election authorities sounded confident of getting the final poll percentage by Tuesday night to be released by the ECI, the figure did not arrive till the filing of this report.

However, AP’s Chief Electoral Officer Mukesh Kumar Meena disclosed that the polling percentage is likely to be between 80–81 per cent. He disclosed that the polling percentage up to Monday midnight had been estimated at 78.25 per cent. With the addition of 1.2 per cent of postal ballots, the polling percentage is expected to be around 79.40 per cent, against 79.64 per cent recorded in 2019 Assembly and Parliament elections.

However, processing of information is still going on in some of districts. Thus, the poll percentage is subject to change.

The ECI is the final authority, which will release the official figures of the voter turnout in the 25 Lok Sabha and 175 Assembly seats.

The figure is important particularly for political parties, whose fortunes may change based on the number of votes polled in a constituency, particularly in those where the contest is keen.