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Delhi

Women voter turnout dips for the first time in 22 years

This is also the first time in over two decades that voter turnout for assembly polls in Delhi has declined

New Delhi: For the first time in 22 years, the National Capital saw a dip in the voter turnout of women voters, which stood at 62.55 per cent, according to the final turnout tally released by the Election Commission on Sunday evening. The final tally was released after more than 24 hours after the polling concluded on Saturday amid attacks from political quarters about the delay in announcing the final numbers.

The turnout trend for women voters has consistently seen an increase since 1998. In 1993 when elections were conducted in the Capital after a 10-year-break, 58.27 per cent of women voters exercised their democratic right. In the 1998 assembly elections, this number saw a sharp decline with only 46.41 per cent of women voting but it has continuously increased in every subsequent assembly election. In the 2003 elections, 51.53 per cent women voted; in 2008, the number rose to 56.62 per cent; in 2013, the number further increased to 65.14 per cent and in 2015, the women voter turnout was at its highest since 1993 at 66.49 per cent.

A similar decrease in the turnout of male voters was also observed in the 2020 assembly election where the number settled at 62.62 per cent, marginally better than the number of women who cast their votes this year. This is also the first time the voter turnout for men has declined since 1998, showing that for the first time in 22 years, the entire voter turnout in the Capital has gone down, which has seen a consistent upward trend since then. In the 2015 assembly polls here, voter turnout was at 67.12 per cent, nearly five percentage points more than the turnout for the 2020 election.

However, the voter turnout numbers for this year are marginally better than the turnout recorded in Delhi during the 2019 Lok Sabha election which saw 60.6 per cent of electors casting their votes. The 2014 Lok Sabha data showed that Delhi saw a 65.10 per cent turnout in the poll that got Prime Minister Narendra Modi elected for his first term.

Interestingly, the relatively poor turnout numbers of women voters come despite this election seeing the largest percentage of women registering to cast their vote since 1993. In fact, this election also saw the highest percentage of women candidates contesting the assembly polls in the last 27 years. In 2015, 44.47 per cent of all registered voters were women and the proportion of women voters in Delhi has seen a slow but steady rise since 1998 when the proportion of female voters was at its lowest between 1993 and 2020 at 42.38 per cent. The second-highest proportion of women voters was seen in the 1993 assembly elections of Delhi.

Also, noteworthy is the fact that despite only 11.75 per cent contesting candidates being women this year in proportion to the 45.16 per cent of total women voters, this is the largest proportion of women candidates who have contested in Delhi since 1993, when only 4.48 per cent of contesting candidates were women.

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