Malappuram By-poll: 68% voter turnout

KOCHI: Voting for the Lok Sabha by-poll for Malappuram constituency in Kerala ended with a total voter turnout of 68.4%. The highest polling of 71.5% was recorded in Kondotty assembly seat.

A by-election was announced in Malappuram Parliament constituency following the death of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) MP E Ahmed. IUML, a member of the Congress-led political alliance United Democratic Front (UDF), has fielded PK Kunhalikutty this time.

An MLA from Vengara constituency, Kunhalikutty was the industries minister when UDF was in power. Presently, he is the national general secretary of IUML.

Left Democratic Front (LDF) has fielded MB Faisal as its candidate in Malappuram. N Sreeprakash is the NDA candidate in the constituency.

Polling, which started at 7 in the morning, gained momentum in the first few hours.

The polling stood at 25.25% after three hours. Vallikunnu assembly segment recorded the highest polling of 27.32 % in the first phase of polling. Polling remained peaceful throughout the day.

Malfunction of nearly 12 voting machines was reported in the initial hours. However, the problems were rectified soon and the polling progressed without any hurdles. TK Hamza of CPM said whoever wins, the margin of victory will be small.

Kunhalikutty said both the Fronts carried out well-disciplined election campaigns.

“However, the final victory and better margin will be ours,“ he said. Besides party candidates, six independents are also trying their luck. More than 1,100 polling stations have been set up in the constituency which has a total electorate of 13,12,693.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Ahamed had won the seat by a margin of 1,94,739 votes against CPM's PK Sainaba.