NEW DELHI: Women outshone men in terms of turnout at polling stations in 2024 Lok Sabha election, clocking a polling percentage of 65.8 as against 65.6 for their male counterparts.
However, barely 9.5% of the total 8,360 candidates in the parliamentary poll were women, with 74 who got elected constituting 13.6% of Lok Sabha.
This is the second time in the history of general elections to Lok Sabha that women turnout surpassed male participation. The share of women in the total electorate too went up to 48.6% from 48.
1% in 2019 general election, as did the number of female electors per 1,000 male electors, which rose to a new high of 946 from 926 in the 2019 election. Interestingly, though there were a total 800 female contestants, 152 of the 543 parliamentary constituencies (PCs) did not have a single woman in the fray. These details are part of the granular data on 2024 general elections released by Election Commission on Thursday.
As per the latest set of reports, the country's electorate saw a 7.4% increase to nearly 98 crore in 2024, of which 64.6 crore voted, from 91.
1 crore in 2019, of which 61.4 crore had voted. Of the 64.
4 crore votes cast, 64.2 crore were by way of EVMs and 42.8 lakh through postal ballots.
The overall polling percentage was 65.7, excluding postal ballots, and 66.1 with postal ballots.
Interestingly, while only 0.08% of EVM votes were rejected, nearly 12.5% of postal ballots received were rejected.
'NOTA' votes on EVM were 0.9%, but 1.1% by postal bal.