Kamal Ghorui
CHENNAI: After a nine-day wait and just 48 hours before counting, EC released the absolute voter turnout for the April 23 election in Tamil Nadu, confirming that 4,87,98,833 voters (4.88 crore) participated in the exercise to elect members for the state assembly.This accounts for 85.1% of the 5.73 crore registered voters across the state’s 234 constituencies — the highest turnout in the state’s electoral history. While this appears to be a sharp rise from the 73.6% (4.63 crore votes) recorded in the 2021 polls, in absolute terms, the increase was modest: only 24.42 lakh more voters turned up, accounting for a 4.3% rise over the number of voters in the previous assembly elections.The high turnout percentage was largely due to SIR, which removed 57 lakh names, bringing down the electorate from 6.29 crore to 5.73 crore.According to the data released Saturday, over 2.52 crore women cast their votes, compared to over 2.35 crore men. Women outvoted men by nearly 17.25 lakh, representing a 2.1% higher turnout than their male counterparts. This trend has continued since the 2011 assembly elections. Of the 7,728 registered third-gender voters, 4,517 cast their ballots. At 77, the Sulur constituency recorded the highest number of transgender voters.EC faced criticism from DMK and AIADMK for not sharing the data sooner.TN electoral officer Archana Patnaik said EC had made elaborate arrangements across 62 counting centres, where the counting of votes from all 75,064 polling stations and received postal ballots will be done on May 4.Authorities have arranged 234 counting halls, in addition to 240 halls for counting of postal ballots and electronically transmitted postal ballots at the same venue. Total 10,545 counting personnel will be engaged, supported by 4,624 micro-observers to ensure transparency and integrity.A comprehensive three-tier security arrangement would be in place at all counting centres, Patnaik said. A total of 65 CAPF companies, alongside state and local police, will be deployed.
