Boycott keeps J&K voters indoors
It was a combination of sympathy for the separatists’ cause and fear of militant threat that kept majority of voters indoors in the Kashmir Valley on Monday as Jammu and Kashmir went to polling in the first phase of municipal elections.
However, much enthusiasm was witnessed among the voters in the State’s two other regions — Ladakh and Jammu and even some pockets of the Valley despite the boycott calls by separatist groups and major mainstream political parties including National Conference (NC), Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), CPIM and BSP.
According to J&K’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Shaleen Kabra, the overall polling percentage across the State in Monday’s polling has been recorded 56.7 percent. Official sources said that the voter turnout remained restricted to around 18 percent in the Kashmir Valley, however.
As per these sources, Srinagar recorded 6.2 percent polling, Baramulla 5.1 percent, Jammu district 63.83 percent, Kargil 78.2 percent, Leh 55.2 percent, Poonch 73.1 percent and Rajouri 81 per cent. In the Kashmir Valley, frontier Kupwara district witnessed highest and neighbouring Bandipore district lowest turnout.
The polling was held in 321 of the 1,145 wards. A tight security umbrella had been put in place all over the restive State to ensure incident free polling.
Srinagar’s DC Syed Abid Rasheed Shah said, “We’ve made elaborate security arrangements all over to ensure polling takes place in safe and secure manner and people are able to exercise their democratic right smoothly.”
Local watchers said that the security bandobast witnessed in several areas of the Valley on Monday was “unprecedented” in the electoral history of J&K. Also, all candidates have been provided either cluster security in hotels or individually in Kashmir Valley, the hotbed of militancy and campaign for aazadi (freedom).
The polling began at 7 am and continued till 4 pm. The counting of votes will take place on October 20.