Low to moderate turnout was recorded in the second of the four-phased municipal body elections in Jammu & Kashmir on Wednesday with only 3.4 per cent voters turning to polling booths in Kashmir valley while Jammu region witnessing enthusiastic 78.6 per cent turnout. The overall percentage stayed at 31.3 per cent, less than the 56.7 per cent turnout in the inaugural phase of the polls held on October 8.
The voting was held amid boycott call by the separatists and decision of two mainstream parties—National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to stay away from the process. The polling began at 6 am, minutes before the sunrise. The timing had been revised without giving any reason but some leaders said the timing was adjusted to broaden room for manipulation.
“Overall 30 per cent polling was witnessed in the Phase-II of Municipal Polls-2018 across J&K. In Jammu division, 76 per cent polling was witnessed in 214 wards while Kashmir division witnessed average 3 per cent polling in 49 wards with Bandipora recording the highest of 35.6 per cent voting,” an official spokesman quoting Chief Electoral Officer Shaleen Kabra said.
The highest polling percentage of 84.8 per cent was recorded in Reasi, the CEO said.
“The cumulative polling percentage in both phases is 47.2 per cent with 67.7 per cent voting recorded in Jammu division and 8.3 per cent in Kashmir division,” he said.
In the absence of NC and PDP, the contest is mainly between Congress and BJP candidates in Kashmir valley. The BJP has fielded several Kashmiri Hindu candidates who are living outside Kashmir since 1989.
At Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Rani Bagh in Anantnag, 62-year-old Sheila Koul Handoo was at the center of attention as she waited for voters to turn up. “I know I have won as I have managed over 450 migrant votes. But I am waiting for at least one blessing vote from Kashmir,” a newspaper quoted Handoo as saying. A former BJP councilor from Jammu, Handoo has specially arrived in Kashmir to contest the ULB elections.
The authorities had designated 544 polling stations across the State with 270 polling stations in Kashmir Valley and 274 in Jammu division. The second phase sealed the fate of 1029 candidates for 263 Municipal wards. While 881 candidates contested from Jammu region, the valley remained low on the count of contestants as 148 candidates were in fray.
In the first two phases, he said, 436285 voters have exercised their franchise out of a total of 933,000 voters who were eligible to vote for these two phases.
The urban local body (ULB) elections are being held in four phases for 79 municipal bodies. Tight security arrangements were in place in all 23 places where polling was held, including restive Anantnag town and parts of capital Srinagar. The separatist Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) had called for area-specific shutdown, which did not throw the normal life out of gear as it did on October 8 when the first phase of polls was held. The top separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq were held under house arrest at their respective residences while Yasin Malik has been taken into custody.
The opposition parties said that the election authorities’ decision to begin polling at 6 am was an attempt to rig the elections. Former chief minister Omar Abdullah said the change in timing may have been done to discourage journalists from checking the veracity of the polls. The election officials said the timing was changed to ensure better turnout.
The highest turnout was recorded in in Sumbal pocket of north Kashmir’s Bandipora district where 35.64 per cent voters exercised their franchise. Out of 2834 votes, 1350 female voters turned to booths to cast their votes in 13 wards.
The lowest turnout was recorded in north Kashmir's Sopore and south Kashmir's Anantnag municipal areas where less than 3 percent voters turned up.
The concluding two phases of the elections will be held on 13 and 16 October.
The separatists JRL said the motives behind holding the elections were getting exposed with each passing day. “With the prior announcement of mayor of Srinagar city by the state authority, manipulation of election timing to 6 am, further military deployments across the valley, continuous arrest of pro-freedom activists and youth, internet bans, the farce of this discredited and preposterous election being undertaken by the authoritarian state gets more and more exposed with each passing phase,” JRL said in a statement.
“The only purpose behind this highly manipulated and authoritarian exercise is as always, by fudging facts and figures to sell to the outside world the myth of Indian democracy at work in J&K and people’s ‘participation’ in it, and hence push back the narrative of J&K disputed status and the need for conflict resolution,” the statement added.