Turnout tanks in all 4 segments amid skirmishes
: Over 60% turnout was witnessed in the byelections to four assembly seats -- Phagwara (reserve), Jalalabad, Dakha and Mukerian -- in Punjab on Monday, with sporadic skirmishes being reported between the ruling Congress and opposition workers.
Polling was slow in the morning, but as the day progressed it picked up pace. The results of the elections will be declared on October 24.
While Jalalabad recorded a polling of 78.6% (highest among four seats) Dakha saw a turnout of 71.6%. The polling percentage in Mukerian and Phagwara was 59% and 55.9%, respectively.
Officials said the polling percentage will change as the data was being tabulated. The opposition Shiromani Akali Dal said one of their workers was injured in a firing incident in Dakha.
The election commission issued notices to three Congress leaders, including Ludhiana MP Ravneet Bittu, Zira MLA Kulbir Singh and party’s Phagwara candidate Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal,
for violating poll code. Dakha SAD candidate Manpreet Singh Ayali also got EC notice for taking to the social media platform to seek votes.
“The polling was peaceful,” Punjab chief electoral officer S Karuna Raju said. SAD leader Daljit Singh Cheema claimed that a party activist was shot at when he tried to stop Congress workers from casting bogus votes”. The EC directed Ludhiana DIG to take over supervision of the model code of conduct and other security measures from the SSP (rural) in Dakha assembly constituency. The Akali Dal has lodged a complaint against the SSP (rural) and sought that he be replaced.
The Phagwara constituency (reserved) witnessed the lowest voter turnout in bypolls this time as compared to the two previous vidhan sabha elections.
This time the constituency recorded 55.97% voting. Voting began at all booths by 7am.
Phagwara recorded 74.43 per cent voter turnout in 2012, and 72 percent in 2017, with BJP’s Som Parkash registering a landslide victory both times.
By-elections were announced after Parkash resigned and was sworn in as the union minister after winning the Hoshiarpur seat as MP.
A total of 1.85 lakh voters, of which 87,000 were women, cast their vote at 220 booths in the town, and around 1,200 security personnel of central paramilitary force were deployed for security.
The ruling Congress and Opposition party BJP are both claiming they will win Phagwara, whose results will be out on October 24.
REASON BEHIND LOW TURNOUT
Speaking about the low turn-out in Phagwara and Mukerian, a poll analyst said enthusiasm for
bypolls was low among voters in Doaba because they do not believe it makes a difference. As compared to Malwa, the Doaba region has always remained peaceful.
The violence in Malwa can be said to indicate enthusiasm among worker and voters, he said. Secondly, in urban areas of Phagwara constituency, public attention is on the festive season rather than polls. Meanwhile, the BJP alleged that urban voters failed to turn up to vote due to the tension created by Congress.
As a pilot project, the election commission of India (ECI) launched quick response (QR) enabled voter slips in Phagwara by-polls. The QR slips were used at all 220 booths including 169 sensitive booths in the town.
“ECI’s pilot project has been introduced in the state and has been launched in Phagwara only,” said SDM Ahmed.
He said the slips were scanned with a cellphone, even without the internet which made it more user-friendly. The app was decided considering that some villages might have weak internet signals.
In the process, when a voter visits the booth to cast his/her vote, the officer at the booth scans the QR code on the polling slip with his cellphone and later, sends it directly to the presiding officer. After this, the presiding officer scans the code and sends the voter to the EVM to cast their vote. By scanning the code, voters also get to know the details about their booths, such as the number of people in queue etc, officials said.