MALAPPURAM: Malappuram recorded a slightly lower voter turnout of 70.41 per cent on Wednesday compared to 71.21 per cent registered during the Lok Sabha elections in 2014. The polling that began at 7 a.m. and concluded at 6 p.m. passed off peacefully in all the 1,175 booths. The counting will be held on Monday. The voting which was slow in the beginning picked up momentum later. The polling was interrupted at 11 booths during the first hour due to technical glitches in the electronic voting machines. But the faulty machines were replaced immediately, said returning officer and district collector Amit Meena.
UDF candidate P.K. Kunhalikutty and LDF’s M.B. Faisal expressed confidence over the outcome. “We have ensured all our votes through systematic electioneering which would reflect in the majority,” Mr Kunhalikutty said after visiting a polling station at the St. Gemma’s School in Malappuram. Mr Faisal said that the secular votes would be with the LDF. “We worked hard at the ground level,” he said.
Mr Kuhalikutty cast his vote at booth No 97 at the CKMM ALP school at Panakkad in the Vengara constituency along with Muslim League state president Panakkad Hyderali Shibab Thangal. Of the total seven Assembly constituencies in the LS segment which are represented by UDF legislators, Kondoty registered the highest turnout followed by Malappuram. Mr Kunhalikutty’s Vengara constituency registered the lowest turnout.
