The Election Commission of India (ECI) is set to release the exact number of voters who exercised their franchise in the Tamil Nadu Assembly election on Saturday, officials told news agency PTI. The turnout figures will also include a detailed gender-wise breakup covering male, female and transgender voters.
The single-phase elections to the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly were held on April 23, while counting of votes is scheduled for May 4.
In addition, ECI officials will inspect all strong rooms where Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) units are stored, PTI reported.
A senior ECI official told PTI that the 85.15% voter turnout figure released on polling day is not final and is based on data received from a subset of polling stations. He said the actual votes cast at each polling station are recorded in Form 17C, which will be cross-verified with data at the ECI headquarters.
The poll authorities have begun district-wise scrutiny of total voter data since Friday morning, the official said. The overall turnout figure, which will be released on Saturday, will not include postal ballot votes, which are compiled separately and added to the final official count.
He added that around 4.18 lakh postal votes have been recorded so far across Tamil Nadu, including those from service voters, senior citizens and persons with disabilities, PTI reported.
The ECI authorities will also manually visit every strong room across districts where EVMs and VVPATs are stored to review security arrangements and ensure compliance with protocols, the official said.
(With inputs from PTI)