The fifth and final phase of Jharkhand election concluded with around 71 per cent voting on Friday for 16 constituencies.
As per the reports by Election Commission of India, till 5pm, 70.83 per cent voter turnout was reported while the approximate voter turnout for all the five phases is 65.17 per cent. For the last Legislative Assembly election in Jharkhand, the final voter turnout was 66.53 per cent.
According to IANS, the highest voting was recorded at Nala assembly with 78.01 per cent and lowest at Dumka with 59.73 per cent voter turnout.
The voting began at 7 am for 16 seats located in Santhal Pargana region of the state. Voting concluded in five seats – Borio, Barhet, Littipada, Mahespur and Shikaripada at 3 pm and in the remaining 11 seats at 5 pm.
For the fifth and last phase of the polls, 40, 05, 287 voters were registered and fate of 237 candidates including 29 women was at fray.
The key candidates who were contesting in the fifth phase were Chief Ministerial candidate of the Congress-JMM-RJD alliance, Hemant Soren who is contesting from Dumka and Barhet. Soren is locked in a direct fight with Louis Marandi from who he was defeated in the last election.
Out of these 16 seats, on 13 seats there is a direct fight between the BJP and Congress-JMM-RJD alliance while on the other three seats the fight is triangular.
Seven seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes including Borio, Barhet, Littipada, Mahespur, Shikaripada, Dumka and Jama while others including Rajmahal, Pakur, Nala, Jamtara, Jarmundi, Mahgama, Poriyahaat, Sarath and Godda are in general category.
On single seat, a maximum 26 candidates were contesting at Jarmundi seat while the minimum seven candiodates on Poriyahaat seat.
As per ECI, no incident of violence was reported, and a total amount of Rs 18.76 crore was seized across the state.
Due to technical glitches, the polling started late on two booths.
The five-phase election in Jharkhand concluded and the counting will take place on December 23.