CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Assembly elections ended peacefully on Tuesday and the voter turnout stood at 71.79 per cent with people sealing the fate of nearly 4,000 candidates including that of AIADMK's K Palaniswami and DMK chief M K Stalin, the key contenders for power.

The 71-plus polling percentage is likely to go up with completion of data collation, Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo told reporters. The EVMs and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail units functioned well and less than one per cent warranted replacements, he said. Tamil Nadu has 6.28 crore voters and a total of 3,998 candidates were in the fray.

Meanwhile, Puducherry recorded a voter turnout of over 78 per cent polling, according to the latest figures from the Election Commission.