A 52.03 per cent voter turnout has been recorded till 3 pm in the Karnataka elections.
First time voters and the elderly stole the show as they were seen participating in the voting process enthusiastically in the Karnataka Assembly elections on Wednesday. And they were not small in numbers. According to Election Commission (EC) officials, as many as 11.71 lakh were eligible to exercise their franchise for the first time.
Today’s Rate
Tuesday 12 Nov. 2024
Of the total eligible voters, 16,914 are centenarians and 12.16 lakh above the age of 80. Theme-based and ethnic polling booths — 737 in all across the State — added a lot of colour to the exercise. The excitement among the first time voters was palpable.
“I am very happy to vote. This is my right”, was their “standard” comment. In a bid to check apathy among voters, the EC had come up with an out-of-the-box idea by holding the poll in the middle of the week to prevent people planning an outing by clubbing the poll-day holiday with the weekend break.
“Date of the poll has been kept on a Wednesday. Had it been on a Monday, it would have come with a holiday of Saturday and Sunday. And had it been on a Tuesday, take a day’s off and we can go out … Wednesday is a little difficult,” an EC official said.
To draw people to use their voting rights, the EC took many initiatives such as theme based and ethnic polling booths, and pink booths exclusively operated by women.
According to the EC, it has set up 996 all women managed polling booths, 239 booths managed by people with disabilities and 286 managed by youth.
