An estimated 61 crore people voted during the seven-phase general election, with more than 64 per cent polling in the final round on May 19, capping one of the most bitterly fought polls that saw sporadic incidents of violence.

Election for one seat, Vellore in Tamil Nadu, has been deferred over the alleged use of money power.

In its last update, the Election Commission (EC) put the voting percentage at more than 64 per cent for the seventh phase, which included Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Varanasi constituency in Uttar Pradesh.

While the EC did not give an official consolidated figure for all seven phases, estimates suggested nationwide voting of 67.11 per cent with a turnout of nearly 61 crore voters, out of the total 90.99 crore people eligible to vote. The turnout in 2014 was 66.40 per cent.

The 2019 general election witnessed differences within the EC with Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa writing dissent notes on the poll panel’s clean chit to Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah on complaints of violation of the Model Code of Conduct.

EVM glitches and incidents of violence in West Bengal and Punjab were reported on May 19 amid poll boycott at some booths. Problems related to EVMs and names missing from electoral rolls were reporterd in almost all phases from various places.

In this election, the voter turnout saw a decreasing trend from phase one to phase five.

According to EC data, in phase one, the turnout was 69.50 per cent. It decreased marginally to 69.44 per cent in phase 2 and further to 68.40 per cent in the third round.

In phase four, the turnout stood at 65.50 per cent and in the fifth phase, the turnout dipped to 64.16 per cent, but went up marginally to 64.40 per cent in the penultimate phase.

The cumulative turnout for the first six phases stood at 67.34 per cent, which is 1.21 percentage points more than the 2014 election on corresponding seats.

Madhya Pradesh recorded an increase of 5.92 per cent over the 2014 polls. Himachal Pradesh also witnessed a higher turnout as compared to last time - 5.1 per cent.

On the other hand, Chandigarh recorded a massive dip in turnout as compared to the last election. The turnout went down by 10.27 per cent. Similarly, Punjab also witnessed a lower turnout as compared to the 2014 election. The gap was a glaring 5.64 per cent.

In most of the states, the turnout was marginally higher - by up to 2.5 per cent.

While there were 83.40 crore registered voters in 2014, the number stood at 90.99 crore as on April 23, the day phase three of voting took place.

These include 1.90 crore young voters - in the age group of 18-19 years. Service voters stood at 18 lakh. These include personnel of the armed forces, central police force personnel and state police personnel who are posted outside their constituencies. Diplomats and support staff posted in Indian embassies abroad are also counted as service voters.

Out of 18 lakh registered service voters, 16.49 lakh have sent their postal ballots to their respective returning officers as on May 17.

The postal ballots were electronically transmitted to the service voters. They have to download it, fill it and send it by Speed Post.

Interestingly, the gap between male and female voter turnout has been narrowing since 2009 when it was 9 per cent. It went down to 1.4 per cent in 2014. It now tentatively stands at 0.4 per cent.

909 posts taken down from social media

Social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, removed 909 posts during the election, following EC directions.

Facebook alone took down 650 posts, followed by Twitter (220), ShareChat (31), YouTube (five) and WhatsApp (three).

Of the 650 posts taken down by Facebook, 482 were political messages posted during the “silence period”.

The “silence period” starts 48 hours before the hour set for conclusion of polling in a particular phase.

As many as 73 social media posts were political advertisements in the “silence period”, two were violative of the Model Code of Conduct, 43 were related to voter “misinformation”, 28 were dubbed as those crossing the limits of decency, 11 were related to exit polls and 11 were hate speeches.

There were also 647 confirmed cases of paid news, of which the maximum of 342 were reported in the first phase itself.

During the 2014 election, 1,297 confirmed cases of paid news were reported.

Cash, liquor, drugs worth Rs 3,500 cr seized

Cash, drugs, liquor and precious metals worth Rs 3,449.12 crore were seized by enforcement agencies since the general election was announced on March 10.

The seizure is nearly three times the figures of the 2014 election, the figures show. In 2014, the overall seizure was Rs 1,206 crore.

Between March 10 and May 19, Rs 839.03 crore in cash, liquor worth Rs 294.41 crore, drugs worth Rs 1270.37 crore, precious metals, including gold, worth Rs 986.76 crore and “freebies”, including sarees and wrist watches, aimed at inducing voters worth Rs 58.56 crore were seized.