Over 69 percent turnout in Meghalaya

Shillong: Over 69 percent of Meghalaya`s 15.67 lakh-strong electorate cast their votes for the two Lok Sabha seats in the mountainous northeastern state, an election official said Thursday.

"The final figure of voting in Shillong and Tura constituencies was 69.03 percent," state chief electoral officer Prashant Naik told IANS. A total of 2,562 polling booths had been set up in the state`s 11 districts for the polling Wednesday.  Tura constituency recorded the higher turnout - 78.13 percent of the 5,86,299 voters, while in in Shillong, it was 63.58 percent of the 10,79,886 voters. The turnout in Tura registered an increase of 10.47 percent over the 2009 Lok Sabha election, while that in Shillong only went up 1.35 percent. In Shillong, Naik said the turnout of female voters was one percent higher - 70.09 percent of the 7,89,187 women voters, while 67.95 percent of the 7,76,633 men exercised their franchise in the matrilineal state. The highest turnout was recorded at Mahendraganj assembly constituency under Tura at 86.40 percent, while the lowest turnout of 52.65 percent was registered in Pynursla assembly constituency. In Wednesday`s voting, the electoral fortunes of 10 candidates were sealed including that of former Lok Sabha speaker and National People`s Party candidate Purno Agitok Sangma who is confident of returning to the Lok Sabha for the tenth time from Tura parliamentary constituency. Sangma is in a straight fight against Congress` Daryl William Cheran Momin, a first-timer. In Shillong, there were eight candidates, including former union minister Vincent H.Pala who is facing a multi-cornered contest amid division against his candidature in his own Congress party.