Lagatar24 Desk
Gandhinagar, Dec 1: With a total turnout of 48.48 percent as of 3 p.m. during the first round of voting for the Gujarat Assembly election, voter turnout was getting closer to 50%.
On Thursday, voting started at 8 am and will last till 5 pm in 89 constituencies distributed over 19 districts in Kutch, Saurashtra, and South Gujarat. 34.65% of eligible voters had cast ballots as of 1:00 PM.
Data from the Election Commission show that as of 3 p.m., Tapi had the highest voter turnout 64.27 percent, while Narmada came in second with 63.88 percent. Dangs indicated 58.55.
The much-discussed Morbi saw a turnout of 53.75%, while Jamnagar got a turnout of 42.26%.
Other districts where voting is underway are Amreli (44.62), Bharuch (52.45), Bhavnagar (45.91), Botad (43.67), Devbhumi Dwarka (46.55), Gir Somnath (50.89), Junagadh (46.03), Kachchh (45.45), Navsari (55.10), Porbandar (43.12), Rajkot (46.68), Surat (47.01), Surendranagar (48.60), and Valsad (53.49).
The fate of the 788 candidates who are running in the first round will be decided by the votes of 2,39,76,670 voters by today at 5 p.m.
1,24,33,362 male electorates, 1,15,42,811 female electorates, and 497 electorates of a third gender make up the total electorates. There are more over 4 lakh PWD voters who can cast ballots. The voting age is 80 years or older for almost 9.8 lakh elderly citizens, and 100 years or more for around 10,000 voters.
The EC reports that 4,945 voters are beyond the age of 99, and 5,745,460 voters are between the ages of 18 and 19. There are 125 men and 38 women among the 163 NRI voters.