TN: Women outnumber men in their share of vote

Despite the fact that men in Tamil Nadu outnumbered the fairer sex in voters list, women went pass men with regard to casting their votes in the April 24 Lok Sabha polls to 39 seats, as the State recorded a polling percentage of 73.67.

Releasing the final figures, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Praveen Kumar said that the polling in this year’s Lok Sabha elections were marginally higher when compared to 72.98 per cent recorded in the 2009 Parliamentary polls.

Stating that this year’s polling percentage of 73.67 was the second highest turnout recorded in the history of Parliamentary elections in Tamil Nadu, Praveen Kumar said that the highest being 76.59 per cent  in the 1967 elections.

He said as per the final and detailed calculation, the polling percentage in State was 73.67 per cent, nearly one per cent higher than the provisional figure of 72.8 announced on the polling day.

According to CEO, while 73.51 per cent of men (2,02,27,493) exercised their franchise for the Lok Sabha elections, the number of women who exercised their franchise is 73.86 per cent (2,03,27,045). Four constituencies recorded a polling of 80 per cent and above. Dharmapuri recorded the highest of 81.07 per cent, while Chennai South recorded the lower percentage of 60.4. Apart from Dharmapuri, three other constituencies —Karur, Perambalur and Aarni —recorded a heavy turnout of 80.55, 80.02 and 80 per cent polling respectively.

  Interestingly, women outnumbered men in Karur and Perambalur also, while the voter turn out of men were higher in Dharmapuri  and Aarni. While 25 constituencies recorded polling of 70 per cent and above, ten seats recorded 60 to 70 per cent polling. He said counting of votes in all the 42 counting centres in State on May 16 would be webcast.