Gujarat Polls 2022: 60.2% Voter Turnout in 1st Phase

TNI Bureau:  The Election Commission of India, on Thursday announced the first round of voter-turnout for the Gujarat Assembly elections on Thursday of almost 60.20 percent.

According to sources, across 89 assembly constituencies spread across 19 districts in Kutch, Saurashtra, and South Gujarat, the first round of voting to determine the fate of 788 candidates began at 8 am and finished at 5 pm.

In Gujarat, 57 percent of voters had turned out as of 5 p.m. to cast their ballots. Whereas, In the 2017 assembly elections, 68 percent of the seats with the same turnout were counted in the first round.

The voting process was mainly peaceful, reports added, with only a few small disturbances and occasional claims of problems in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Piyush Patel, a BJP candidate from the Vansda constituency, is accused of being attacked in the village of Jhari in a recent incidence of election violence. According to Navsari SP Girish Pandya, the event also caused damage to about 5 automobiles. Patel was hospitalised after the incident left him with injuries.

The villages of Dhrafa in Jamnagar district, Samot in Narmada district, and Kesar in Bharuch district completely boycotted the elections, according to a press statement from the Election Commission.

Due to the failure to comply with their request for separate polling places for male and female voters, the people of Dhrafa boycotted the election. In a similar manner, the release stated that Kesar village’s boycott was brought on by the absence of fundamental voting infrastructure.

On December 5, voting will begin for the second phase of the Gujarat Assembly election.

According to reports, Voters from the rural and tribal regions turned out in high numbers for the Gujarat assembly election’s first round. Urban voters, however, have not turned out in such large numbers to cast ballots.

48.48 percent of voters have cast votes as of 3 p.m. With 64.27 percent of the vote, the Tapi district reported the highest turnout, followed by Narmada (63.88 percent) and Dangs (58.55 percent).

It was 45.91 percent in the Bhavnagar district of Saurashtra, 46.03 percent in the Junagadh district, and 47.01 percent in Surat.
While in urban areas it was 42.90 percent in Rajkot West and 43.42 percent in Rajkot South, tribal reserve seats such as Nizar recorded 66.42 percent and Kaprada 64.45 percent.