 Early Times Report
Samba/Srinagar, Oct 13: Only 3.49 per cent of the electorate voted in the third phase of the urban local body polls in the Kashmir Valley, while a high turnout of 82 per cent was recorded in Jammu's Samba district, officials said on Saturday. Uri in Baramulla district recorded a 75.34 per cent turnout, bucking the trend in the Valley, which has witnessed low polling in the first two of the four-phase elections after parties like the NC, the PDP and the CPI (M) called for a boycott.
In the 20 wards of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) that went to polls in the third phase, only 1.84 per cent of the 1.53 lakh eligible voters exercised their franchise, the election officials said. Safakadal, a ward in the city's old town, and Chanapora, in the Civil Lines area, polled less than 10 votes each. The polling, which began at 6am and ended at 4pm, saw 11 SMC wards recording less than 100 votes.
The officials said in Uri, 75.34 per cent of the 3,552 voters cast their votes, while in the Mattan Municipal Committee of Anantnag district, the only town in India other than Konark to have a Sun Temple, witnessed a turnout of 2.81 per cent. In Sheerpora ward of the Anantnag Municipal Council, where election authorities had ordered a repoll, only 1.39 per cent of the 2,643 exercised their franchise.
Though 151 wards were to go to polls in the third phase in the Valley, voting was held only in 40 wards. Forty-nine wards were won uncontested and no nominations filed for 62 wards. The first phase of the polls in the Kashmir Valley saw 8.3 per cent turnout on October 8 while only 3.4 per cent of the electorate exercised their franchise in the second phase held two days later. In Samba, of the 31,878 voters, 82 per cent exercised their franchise in the third phase, a repeat of the high voter turnout recorded in the first two phases in the region.
There are 365 candidates in the fray for 96 wards of eight urban local bodies for the third phase comprising a total electorate of 1,93,990 electors.
Municipal elections are being held, amid tight security, after a gap of 13 years in four phases, covering 79 municipal bodies with an electorate of about 17 lakh electors across the state. The officials said 3,372 nominations have been filed for 1145 wards. The counting of votes will be held on October 20.
The counting of votes will be held on October 20. Adequate security personnel were deployed for maintaining law and order and observers, zonal and sectoral officers are monitoring the polls to ensure free and fair elections, Chauhan said.
She said Ramgarh is leading the voter turnout chart in the first six hours of polling at 73.18 per cent followed by Bari Brahmana (68.97 per cent), Vijaypur (65.17 per cent) and Samba (49.82 per cent). Long queues of voters were witnessed outside almost all polling stations and a record voter turnout is expected at the end of the polling at 4 pm, officials said.
"This is for the first time I am voting in any elections. It is my right to choose a representative who could work for the welfare of the people," a first-time voter Monika said after casting her vote at government higher secondary school at Badani in Samba. |
