NEW DELHI: Women once again outshone men in terms of turnout in Phase 6, clocking nearly 65% voting as against 61% among their male counterpart. After Phase 5, which was the first round to see a higher polling percentage among women,
Phase 6
is only the second of the six completed to witness better female participation.
EC on Tuesday released not only the overall and
gender-wise turnout
data for all states and parliamentary seats where polling was held in Phase 6 but also the absolute electors data and the absolute count of votes cast in the phase.
While the absolute figures for Phase 6 have been shared by EC just three days after polling, it had put out the corresponding data for all the first five phases only on May 25, a day after Supreme Court had declined to direct the poll body to place Form 17C voter details in the public domain.
EC on Tuesday clarified that the data released by it was based on EVM votes and did not include postal ballot votes. It however said daily account of
postal ballots
received was shared with all candidates.
As per data for the six phases released by EC, 173 of the total 486 LS seats, where the votes lie sealed in EVMs, saw female voters beat their male counterparts in terms of polling percentage. The gender-wise poll percentage for Outer Manipur could not be worked out as voting there was split between Phase 1 and 2, with Phase 1 showing the turnout higher among female electors and Phase 2, among the male voters.
The EC took a slew of initiatives to improve women's participation in polls. However, the higher
female voter turnout
in states like Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha is also being linked to out-of-state work migration by the men in the household.
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