59-60 percent voter turnout in Election 2009

New Delhi, May 13: An estimated 428 million of India's 714 million electorate voted in the five-phase general elections that saw a turnout of 59-60 percent, the Election Commission announced Wednesday.

On Wednesday, when the last round of polling was conducted in 86 constituencies in seven states and two union territories, 62 percent of the voters had exercised their franchise, Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla told reporters.

The first round of the elections on April 16 saw a turnout of over 60 percent, on April 23 it was 55 percent, on April 30 the figure was 50 and the fourth round on May 7 saw 57 percent of voters casting their ballot.

In the last parliamentary elections in 2004, 57.65 percent of the 671.4 million electorate had voted.

--IANS