New Delhi, May 17 (PTI) As much as 69.58 per cent of 8.97 crore men and 68.73 per cent of 8.73 crore women voted in the fourth phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha polls, according to fresh data issued by the Election Commission on Friday.

Ninety-six Lok Sabha seats with a combined electorate of 17.7 crore went to polls in the fourth round of seven-phase elections on May 13.

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Women outnumbered men in Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal when it came to turning up at polling stations in this phase. Nine states and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir went to polls on May 13.

According to the poll authority, the voter turnout in the fourth phase stood at 69.16 per cent, 3.65 percentage points higher than the corresponding phase in the 2019 parliamentary elections.

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The updated voter turnout figures for the third phase of polling in the Lok Sabha elections stood at 65.68 per cent. In the third phase of the 2019 elections, the turnout was 68.4 per cent.

In the second phase of the 2024 elections, the turnout was recorded at 66.71 per cent as against the 69.64 per cent in the second phase of the 2019 polls.

In the first phase of the ongoing general elections on April 19, a 66.14 per cent turnout was recorded. In the 2019 polls, the turnout in the first phase was 69.43 per cent.

The poll panel reiterated that the final turnout will only be available post-counting, with counting of postal ballots and its addition to the total vote count.

Postal ballots include ballots given to service voters, absentee voters -- those above 85 years of age who opt for home voting, persons with disabilities, those on essential duty and voters on election duty. PTI NAB

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)