Voter Turnout Percentage in the constituencies that went to polls in the first 5 phases of the 2024 LS elections almost similar to that of 2019 Polls
Amid reports of the Election Commission’s delay in releasing the absolute numbers related to votes cast, a social media post claims that there is a drop of 19.4 crore voters in the first five phases of the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections compared to the 2019 polls. The post includes a clip of a news report by ‘The Wire,’ which makes the same claim. In this article, we fact-check this assertion.
Claim: There is a drop of 19.4 crore voters in the first five phases of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections compared to the 2019 polls.
Fact: The absolute number of votes cast in the first five phases of the 2024 elections increased compared to 2019. In the first five phases of 2024, 50.7 crore votes were cast, while 47.5 crore votes were cast in the same phases of 2019. Overall, the voting percentages for the first five phases in 2019 and 2024 are almost similar. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Amid the ongoing controversy, the Election Commission of India (ECI) released data on the total number of votes cast for the recently concluded five phases of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. FACTLY analyzed this data, using the 2024 election information as a basis. We compared the data by grouping constituencies that were part of one phase in 2024 and comparing the voter turnout in the same constituencies in 2019.
According to the compiled data, the number of votes cast in the first five phases of the 2024 elections increased compared to 2019. In the first five phases of 2024, 50.7 crore votes were cast while 47.5 crore votes were cast in the same constituencies in 2019. All five phases showed an increase in the absolute number of votes cast compared to 2019. However, the voting percentage in the first three phases of 2024 saw a slight reduction compared to 2019, whereas the fourth and fifth phases recorded a slight increase compared to 2019.
Overall, the voting percentages for the first five phases in 2019 and 2024 are almost similar. In 2019, the first five phases recorded a 66.8% voter turnout with approximately 47.5 crore voters participating out of 71 crore eligible voters. In 2024, the voter turnout is 66.4%, with 50.7 crore voters participating out of 76.4 crore eligible voters. It is important to note that FACTLY did not include a few constituencies in Assam for 2019 due to changes in constituency names because of delimitation. Including these could result in a slight increase in the 2019 voting percentage.
Regarding the incorrect figures reported by ‘The Wire,’ they initially claimed there was a significant drop in voter turnout in the first five phases of the 2024 elections compared to 2014. However, ‘The Wire’ later updated the article, acknowledging their mistake. They had incorrectly used the number of eligible voters for each phase of the 2019 elections instead of the actual post-election turnout numbers.
To sum up, there is a slight increase in the absolute number of votes cast in the first five phases of the 2024 election compared to 2019 while voter turnout remains almost similar.