Chandigarh:Elections in Punjab were held in a single phase and voting began at 8 am on February 20. The voting percentage was very low in the initial hours and till 9 am only 4.8 per cent voting could be reported. This slow process continued till 1 pm as just 34.1 percent cast their votes. Later, the momentum picked up a bit and by 3 pm, the voting percentage reached 49.81 percent and by 5 pm the voting percentage reached 63.44 percent, according to the election commission report.
However, the percentage of voting was less compared to the 2017 elections. At that time there were around 1 crore 90 lakh voters and the voting percentage was 77.20 and this time till 6 pm out of 21499804 voters only 65 percent of the voters cast their vote.
Voting took place more in villages than in cities, even after 6 pm, voters were seen queuing up to cast their votes at some booths. The voting percentage was low in the cities of Ludhiana, Amritsar, and Jalandhar, while the districts of Bathinda, Mansa, Sangrur, Barnala, and Malerkotla witnessed bumper voting. There were 5 districts of the state where voters did not show much interest in voting.
In these, the voting could not even touch the 65% mark. However, there were 12 districts in the state in which the voter turnout has crossed 70%. Out of these, Mansa recorded the highest voter turnout of 78.7%, while Amritsar district recorded the lowest voter turnout of 61.2% in the state, said Election Commission.