Delhi Election 2020: At 61%, Delhi Records Drop in Voter Turnout for the First Time Since 1998
According to the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) voter turnout app, the total turnout in Delhi was recorded at 61% till 10:20pm, a decline over the 2015 polls when a 67.12 per cent of the voters came out to vote.
New Delhi: The overall voter turnout in Delhi on Saturday registered a drop as compared to the 2015 assembly election due to a lackadaisical response from voters on the polling day.
According to the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) voter turnout app, the total turnout in Delhi was recorded at 61% till 10:20pm, a decline over the 2015 polls when a 67.12 per cent of the voters came out to vote. The turnout data on the app is tentative and the final figures may be marginally different.
A total of 1.47 crore people were eligible to vote in Delhi.
This is the first time since 1998 when Delhi has witnessed a drop in voter turnout over a previous assembly election. In 1998, the capital had recorded a voter turnout of just 48.99 per cent which was a sharp decline of more than 12 percentage points from 61.75 per cent.
Since 1998, Delhi had seen an increase in the overall voter turnout in each successive election. Hence, turnout in 2003, 2008, 2013, and 2015 was recorded at 53.42 per cent, 57.58 per cent, 65.63 per cent, and 67.12 per cent, respectively.
Across constituencies, Matia Mahal in Central Delhi registered the highest voter turnout of 68.36 per cent whereas Bawana assembly constituency in North district saw the lowest turnout at 41.95 per cent.
Voter turnout in New Delhi constituency, which had the highest number of candidates — 28 — including Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal, was registered at 51.64 per cent compared to 64.72 per cent during the 2015 polls when Kejriwal won with a margin of more than 30,000 votes.
Among districts, North East district registered the highest 62.75 per cent voter turnout while the lowest turnout was recorded in South East district (54.15 per cent), as per the ECI app.
In 2015, AAP had won 67 of 70 assembly seats in Delhi and more than 54 per cent of the vote-share. While the Bharatiya Janata Party could only manage to win three seats even as it secured 32 per cent of votes, Congress had failed to open its account.
Counting of votes in Delhi is scheduled for Tuesday, February 11.
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