The Election Commission of India (ECI) yesterday released the absolute number of votes cast in each parliamentary constituency in the first five phases of the Lok Sabha election.
This is the first time that the ECI has shared the total number of votes cast in this Lok Sabha election.
Meghalaya with two parliamentary constituencies – Shillong and Tura – went to polls on April 19 in the first phase of the election.
According to the ECI data regarding absolute number of votes cast, Shillong parliamentary constituency registered a voter turnout of 73.78 per cent. Of the total 14,00,411 voters, 10,33,251 of them cast their votes.
In Tura parliamentary constituency, the turnout was 81.37 per cent. Out of 8,26,156 voters, 6,72,284 cast their votes.
“The Commission feels duly strengthened by the Supreme Court’s observations and verdict on the process of release of turnout data by the Election Commission of India,” the ECI said.
“The Commission has therefore decided to further expand the format of the release of turnout data to include the absolute number of voters in every parliamentary constituency, which of course is discernible parliamentary constituency wise by all citizens themselves by applying the turnout percentage to total electors, both already made available in the public domain,” it added.
It may be mentioned that Shillong seat witnessed the contest between sitting MP Vincent H. Pala (Congress), cabinet minister Ampareen Lyngdoh (NPP), Robertjune Kharjahrin (UDP), Dr. Ricky A J Syngkon (VPP) and two independent candidates Prof. Lakhon Kma and Peter Shallam.
From Tura constituency, the candidates were sitting MP Agatha Sangma (NPP), Saleng Sangma (Congress), Zenith Sangma (TMC) and independent candidate Labenn Ch Marak.
