Kerala's final voting figure: 77.35%

Thiruvananthapuram: The election commission on Tuesday announced the final voter turnout of 77.35% for the state assembly election, held on Monday. It is 2.23% higher than the 2011 assembly election turnout of 75.12%.The highest turnout was in Kozhikode (81.89%) while Pathanamthitta had the lowest (71.66%). However, the voter turnout in both Pathanamthitta and Thiruvananthapuram, despite being the lowest, has considerably improved compared to the previous election. Wayanad recorded the highest growth rate (4.41%) while Thiruvanthapuram recorded a growth of 4.2% and Pathanamthitta 3.44%.Cherthala in Alappuzha, which recorded 86.3%, saw the highest turnout among assembly constituencies while Thiruvananthapuram came last at 65.19%. "We have a large number of NRI voters, around 15%, compared to other districts. Also, traditionally, the northern districts have been witnessing higher turnout than southern districts. Despite all these, we improved by 3.44%, which is the third highest growth rate in terms of voter turnout in the state," Pathanamthitta district collector S Harikishore said, adding that it was a result of the effective systematic voter education programme undertaken by districts with low turnout.On the other hand, the voter turnout in Kannur district showed a minor dip (0.03%) compared to the last election. Kozhikode, which recorded over 81% voting, improved by only 0.62%. Kannur district collector P Bala Kiran attributed the dip in turnout to the tight scrutiny against bogus voting.Other districts like Kasaragod, Palakkad, Thrissur, Ernakulam, Idukki, Kottayam and Kollam also registered an improvement in voter turnout by over 2% while it was comparatively lower in Malappuram (1.44%) and Alappuzha (0.77%).