Question

In a straight contest , the loser polled 42% votes and lost by 14400 votes . Find the total no. of wath votes polled . If the total no. number of eligible voters were 1 lakh , find wahat percentage of voters did not vote .

Answer 1

Let the total no. of votes be x.
⇒Loser gets 42% of x votes=42x/100 votes.
⇒Winner gets 100%-42%=58% of x votes=58x/100 votes.
Now , margin by which loser lost=14400.
Therefore, difference between winner's and loser's votes is 14400. 
⇒Given , 58x/100-42x/100=14400
⇒(58x-42x)/100=14400
⇒16x/100=14400
⇒x=14400*100/16 (by cross multiplication)
⇒x=90000.
=============================================(Part 1 solved )
Hence the total no of votes polled is 90000.
No . of eligible voters=100000
⇒No. of voters who didn't vote=100000-90000=10000.
⇒Percentage of voters who didn't vote=10000/100000*100 %
=10% 
================================================(Part 2 solved)
Ans:The number of votes polled is 90000.
10% voters didn't vote.  (I'm thinking why so)

Answer 2

Loser got 42% votes, that means, Winner got 58% votes.
Difference is 16%
So, 16% of total votes polled = 14400
Let the no of votes polled = x
0.16x = 14400
x = 90000
that means, 90000 votes polled.
Eligible voters = 100000
No. of voters did not vote = 100000 - 90000 = 10000
Which is 10% of the total.