NEW DELHI: The three-phase polls for the Tenth Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament) concluded Saturday with just 53% voter turnout the lowest in India’s electoral history and the highest number of 649 killings.
At least 160 people were killed as sporadic violence and booth Capturing marred the final phase of the world’s biggest democratic exercise in which an estimated 55% of the 1863 million electorate exercised their franchise,
Southern Andhra Pradesh state was the worst hit with 13 killings followed by Gujarat in the west with five and Uttar Pradesh with two.
In the first phase on May 20 about 55% of 197.7 million electorate exercised their franchise and in the second phase on June 12, about 50% of 106.6 million cast their ballots.
Elections were held for 502 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats besides the assemblies of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Pondicherry in three phases, F.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 21, 1991
