Jammu & Kashmir Records 63.88% Voter Turnout For Assembly Election

The Election Commission of India announced on Thursday that the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections recorded an overall voter turnout of 63.88 percent.

In the third phase, held on October 1, the turnout was 69.69 percent. Phase 1 and Phase 2 saw voter turnouts of 61.38 percent and 57.31 percent, respectively.

In the third phase, female voter participation slightly surpassed male turnout, with 70.02 percent of women casting their votes compared to 69.37 percent of men.

Across the entire Assembly election, the overall male voter turnout stood at 64.88 percent, while the female turnout was 63.04 percent. The Chhamb constituency recorded the highest voter turnout of 80.34 percent in the third phase.

Earlier in the month, the ECI had remarked that the elections were conducted peacefully in a celebratory atmosphere. "These elections were a strong endorsement of democracy, aligning with the confidence expressed by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar during the announcement of the general elections in J&K on August 16," the statement read.

The three-phase Assembly elections, which concluded peacefully on October 1, were the first to be held in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370.

The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference and Congress, both members of the INDIA alliance, jointly contested the elections, while the PDP and BJP ran independently.

Prominent figures, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah (BJP), Rahul Gandhi (Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha), and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, and Mehbooba Mufti, campaigned extensively throughout the election period.

The vote counting is scheduled for October 8. The Supreme Court had directed the Centre in 2023 to ensure that Assembly elections were held in Jammu and Kashmir by September 30, 2024.