EMN
DIMAPUR, MARCH 11
NAGALAND holds the record for the highest voter turnout during the 2009 general elections in the country, the Election Commission of India has said Monday. The coming elections for the state’s lone Lok Sabha seat are also expected to be another reflection of the ballot passion among the hilly state’s citizens.
Coming at a time when internal political upheavals, corruption, economic meltdown and social unrest characterized the subcontinent, the general elections for the year witnessed a voter turnout above 58 percent.
North Eastern states had “very good” voter turnout except for Mizoram, the Election Commission of India said on Monday, while issuing electoral factsheets prior to the Lok Saba elections. The 16th Lok Sabha election to the lone Parliamentary Constituency seat of Nagaland is scheduled to be held on April 9, 2014. The Election Commission issued factsheets about Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland today.
The hilly, militancy-ravaged state of Nagaland recorded the highest turnout of voters, 89.99%, followed by Tripura (84.45%) and Sikkim (83.76%). Mizoram recorded just 51.8%. West Bengal also had very good turnout of 81.4%. Southern states had an impressive voter turnout with Kerala at73.36%, Tamil Nadu at 73.03% and Andhra Pradesh at 72.63 %. Karnataka was just above the national average with 58.81%.
Among Union Territories, only Delhi showed a voter turnout lower than the national average. The capital region recorded 51.85% voters casting their votes in the national capital. Lakshadweep, with 85.9% voter turnout, was the first amongst the union territories and second overall.
Further, according to the Election Commission, ‘big states’ like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat recorded voter turnout well below the national average of 58.19 %. The biggest state of the country, Uttar Pradesh recorded a voter turnout of only 47.78%, more than 10 percentage points lower while Bihar had just 44.46 %. The lowest voter turnout, 39.68%, was registered in J&K.
Gujarat with 47.9% and Rajasthan with 48.4% voter turnout, were among the top five states with the lowest voter turnout. Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh also had voter turnouts lower than the national average, with 50.71%, 50.98% and 51.16 %, in that order.
Nagaland’s Lok Sabha seat: fact file
The 16th Lok Sabha election to the lone Parliamentary Constituency seat of Nagaland is scheduled to be held on April 9, 2014. Polling will be held in 2,059 polling stations spread across 1,856 polling station locations.
The commission said 15.87% of voters are in the age group 18–25 while women constitute 50.61%, out of the state’s total of 11,74,663 electors as on 10th February 2014. The poll expenditure limit per candidate in the state is Rs.70 lakhs.
For the state’s Lok Sabha seat, the Naga Peoples’ Front-led Democratic Alliance of Nagaland coalition government (NPF-led DAN) is fielding Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, while the opposition Indian National Congress party is fielding former Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee leader KV Pusa.
