Rising temperature leads to lower turnout

Kochi: Palakkad Lok Sabha constituency, which has been reeling under scorching heat with temperatures rising above 41°C, saw brisk voting at the start of polling but the turnout began to drop as the day progressed.

The booths saw long lines of voters who wanted to vote before it was too hot. However, due to the slow voting process and the exhaustion caused by the heat, many returned home to come back later.

At 9pm, polling at Palakkad constituency stood at 72.83%, well below the 77.77% recorded in 2019.

In the first three hours till 10am, around 13.52% voting was recorded in the constituency. Shoranur saw the highest of 15.44% followed by Ottapalam (14.45%) and Malampuzha (14.47%).

By noon, Palakkad recorded 28.25% turnout, Shoranur 31.77%, Malampuzha 30.03% and Ottapalam 29.82%. In the assembly segments of Mannarkkad, Kongad and Pattambi, polling was much less. Pattambi recorded 24.09% while Mannarkkad had 26.31%, Palakkad 27.98% and Kongad 27.62%.

However, the polling slowed down after noon to 44.40% at 2pm. At 7.30pm, the poll percentage was 72.09% with Shoranur segment recording the highest of 75.05%, followed by Ottapalam (73.47%), Pattambi (68.51%) and Palakkad (69.23%).

The district has already recorded 19,177 postal votes, of which 11,551 are persons above 85 years. There are a total 23, 15, 990 voters in the district. MB Pranav, a person with disabilities (armless from birth) registered the voter’s ink on his toes as he cast his maiden vote at ALP school in Perinkulam in Alathur grama panchayat.

In Chalakudy constituency, long queue of voters, especially women, were visible at many polling stations in the morning. Kunnathunad assembly constituency recorded 77.51% while overall percentage touched 71.68% percent as per data came out at 9pm.

UDF’s sitting MP Benny Behnan, LDF’s C Raveendrananth, Twenty20’s Charly Paul and NDA’s K A Unnikrishnan are the major contestants here.

The poll percentage in several polling stations in Chalakkudy touched 40% by noon. Scuffle between LDF and Twenty20 workers was reported from Kizhakkambalam.

In Ernakulam, city-centre area recorded low voter turnout than the outskirts. Sitting MP Hibi Eden (UDF), K J Shine (LDF) and K S Radhakrishnan (NDA) are the major contestants.

No major untoward incidents were reported in the constituency during the voting process. Almost all booths witnessed long queues in the morning and the constituency recorded 24.50% percentage until 11am. Then the voting process slowed down, mainly due to the intense heat condition. The total polling percentage as on 9pm was 68.28%.