Agartala, Feb 17, 2023, IANS

Agartala, Feb 17 (IANS): Women voters' turnout in Thursday's elections to the Tripura Assembly was 3.05 per cent higher than of their male counterparts, officials said on Friday.

Election officials said that 87.63 per cent of the 28.14 lakh voters in Tripura exercised their franchise in Thursday's elections to the 60-member Assembly.

"This 87.63 per cent turnout calculated on the basis of the votes polled in EVM (Electronic voting Machine) and excluding the votes of the postal ballot and service votes, cast by the polling, security personnel, those who were engaged in the polling process, 80 plus senior citizens and physically challenged voters. The postal ballot and service vote's percentage would be known later," an election official said.

The official said that 89.17 per cent of the 13,99,289 women voters and 86.12 per cent of the 14,15,233 men voters cast their votes in Thursday's balloting. Voter turnout was 91.82 per cent and 89.38 per cent in 2013 and 2018 Assembly elections, respectively.

Tripura Chief Electoral Officer Kiran Gitte said that the state has maintained its tradition of recording the high voting percentage during Thursday's Assembly election as well. He said that it was almost a cent percent violence-free polling except few stray incidents and the state has set an example to the people of the country on how peaceful polling is held.

Counting of votes would be held on March 2 along with Meghalaya and Nagaland, where assembly elections would be held on February 27.

A total of 259 candidates including 31 women were in the fray in Tripura.