J&K records highest voter turnout in last four decades, says ECI

New Delhi: The Election Commission of India on Monday said that Jammu and Kashmir witnessed the highest voter turnout in the last four decades with an overall 58.58 per cent polling.

Addressing a press conference here, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said the poll body abolished cumbersome Form M for Kashmiri migrants and introduced self-attestation in place of gazetted officer attestation.

He further said that nowhere in the world 642 million voters cast their vote in any electoral exercise and a record 312 million women voters exercised their franchise in the general polls.

He added that this time only 39 repolls were conducted in the entire country as against 540 repolls in 2019.

Further, the CEC said that 75 international election visitors from 23 countries observed booth polling in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

During his press interaction, CEC Rajiv Kumar said that there were no major incidents of freebies, liquor and money distribution in the elections. He said that cash worth Rs 1,054 crore was seized.