At 16.4%, J&K records dismal turnout
Cumulative poll percentage of 3 phases is 41.9% with 68.4% voting in Jammu division & 6.7% in Kashmir division
SRINAGAR : The third phase of civic polls for eight municipal bodies in four districts of Jammu and Kashmir witnessed 16.4% voter turnout on Saturday, the lowest so far.
Continuing with the low voter turnout trend, Kashmir again recorded a dismal 3.5% polling in third phase of urban local body elections.
Chief electoral officer Shaleen Kabra said Kashmir division witnessed an average of 3.5% polling with Uri municipal committee in Baramulla recording highest turnout at 75.3% of its 3,552 voters.
Kabra said the cumulative poll percentage in all three phases till date is 41.9% with 68.4% voting recorded in Jammu division and 6.7% in Kashmir division.
However, the lowest voting took place in summer capital Srinagar’s 20 wards where just 1.8% people voted out of 1,53,091 eligible voters.
As many as 12 of these wards fall in the Old City which has a strong separatist sentiment and often face the brunt of curfews and restrictions from state authorities.
Similarly, Mattan municipal committee in Anantnag recorded a 3.2% polling among 5,469 electors including re-polling at one polling station of Anantnag district where elections could not be held on October 10 during second phase. Baramulla’s Uri had long voting queues despite being a border town close to the Line of Control in north Kashmir and heavily fortified.
There was no voting in Kashmir’s seven municipal bodies– Hajin, Sopore, Tral, Awantip- ora, Pahalgam, Ashmuqam and Seer Hamadan, which were scheduled to go on voting in phase-3, either because there was no nomination by any candidate or single candidates got elected unopposed.
A MOCKERY
“I will call this a family election where every candidate is bringing out his close relatives and family members to vote for them. What good is a election when the percentage is not crossing even single digit. This is a mockery,” a youth said outside a polling booth in ward-45 of Srinagar, where some 96 persons had voted out of 1,520 persons till noon.
In the first phase on Monday, only 8.2% voter turnout was recorded in Kashmir region while it further reduced to 3.4% in the second phase on Wednesday.
As many as 365 candidates were in fray for 96 MC wards for phase 3, comprising a total electorate of 1,93,990 electors.
PEACEFUL POLLING
The business establishments were shut and traffic movement was affected in the poll bound areas. Authorities had reduced speed of mobile internet services. However, the polling was peaceful.
“3rd phase of urban &local body election concluded peacefully in Valley.@jmuk mr police ,” Kashmir police zone tweeted.
The elections are happening after 13 years amid threats from militants, boycott calls from separatists and abstention from two main mainstream parties, the Peoples’ Democratic Party and National Conference.
“From the highest turnouts since 1987 in 2014 to the lowest turnouts ever recorded in 2018 why is the Modi government able to get away with its disastrous handing of Kashmir almost unquestioned?,” said the NC leader and former chief minister, Omar Abdullah.