T’puram: The Election Commission (EC) on Monday revised the assembly poll turnout figure to 79.63%. Chief electoral officer Rathan U Kelkar said the figure combines votes recorded through electronic voting machines (EVMs), postal ballots and home voting, though service votes have not been included. A total of 53,984 service voters are yet to be accounted for and Kelkar said the final tally will be available only after the counting process.According to the data released, polling through EVMs stood at 78.27% and postal ballots accounted for 1.36%, taking the combined turnout to 79.63%. The data has already been shared with political parties.The announcement comes in response to a letter sent by opposition leader V D Satheesan to the EC, raising concerns over the delay in publishing official polling data. In his letter, Satheesan pointed out that even three days after polling, detailed and authenticated data — including constituency-wise turnout and postal ballot statistics — were not made available on the official website. He stressed that timely publication of such data is essential to ensure transparency, enable public scrutiny and maintain trust in the electoral process.Responding to the concerns, Kelkar said the delay was due to the time required to compile postal ballot figures. He described the delay as routine and limited to three days, adding that all stages of the process involved participation from political party representatives. “There is no need for any confusion. The entire process is transparent. All parties have access to booth-level data and postal ballots were handled in the presence of party representatives,” he said.Kelkar also stated that webcasting facilities from strong rooms would be made available to all political parties to ensure transparency. He added that if there were complaints from polling personnel who were unable to cast their votes, they could seek legal remedies by submitting complaints to returning officers. “EC has not denied voting rights to anyone,” he said, adding that the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise yielded positive results.Meanwhile, data on postal voting among specific categories showed high participation rates. Senior citizens recorded a turnout of 96.3%, persons with disabilities 97.71%, essential service voters 94.24% and election duty staff 96.37%.Gender-wise data indicated that 75.19% of male voters cast their votes, compared with 81.19% of female voters. Among transgender voters, the turnout was 56.04%. EC is expected to release the final, consolidated polling figures after the inclusion of service votes and completion of counting procedures.
