DK registers 76.67 pc polling

Sullia registers highest 83.67 pc; M’lore North lowest with 70.08 pc

Dakshina Kannada constituency has registered 76.67 polling percentage, which is nearly two per cent more than the last parliament and assembly polls, in the Lok Sabha election held on Thursday. The district had registered 74.44 in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls and 74.48 per cent in 2013 assembly polls.

Of the 15,64,114 total voters, 11,96,531 exercised their franchise on the polling day.

Sullia assembly segment recorded highest voting of 83.67 per cent compared to other assembly segments, while Mangalore North stood in the last position by recording 70.08 per cent. Sullia is followed by Puttur with 82.63 polling percentage, Bantwal - 81 per cent, Belthangady - 76.65 per cent, Moodbidri - 74.63 per cent, Mangalore - 74.50 pc and Mangalore South - 70.13 pc. 

Sullia has maintained the distinction of highest polling segment, which it had obtained in the last assembly and parliament election.

Going by the tentative figure released by the district administration, the rural voters like usual, showed better turn out when compared to the urban voters spread across Mangalore, Mangalore South and North. 

The voting percentage of urban voters spread in three assembly segments in Mangalore is 71.57, while rural population has performed better with 79.73 per cent, making it quite evident that the lack of interest shown by the urban voters has affected the total polling percentage.

17 EVMs replaced

Speaking to mediapersons on Thursday, Deputy Commissioner A B Ibrahim said that the slight increase in voter turn out was due to deletion and inclusion of names in the voters list and the awareness created through Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP). 

“As many as 17 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were replaced due to technical fault in the machine. Of the 17 machines, 11 were replaced before the commencement of the election and six were replaced during the process. However, it has not hampered the voting process,” he said.

He summed up the election process as ‘peaceful’ and said that no untoward incident were reported, except for small problems and complaints, that were part of the election process. The election authority has received a complaint on 22 names of voters missing from a voters list in Valencia.