In the fourth and last phase of the civic body polls, voter turnout plummeted to a mere 4.2%
The curtains finally came down on the Jammu and Kashmir municipal polls with the fourth and final phase witnessing a mere 4.2 per cent voter turnout on Tuesday.
Thirty-six wards of two civic bodies in Srinagar and Ganderbal went to polls on Tuesday with around 156 candidates in the fray. The electoral strength of these wards combined was around 2, 50,794 voters.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Jammu and Kashmir, Shaleen Kabra said Ganderbal witnessed 11.3 per cent polling in 12 wards while Srinagar witnessed 4 per cent voter turnout in the other 24 wards on Tuesday. "The cumulative poll percentage in all the four phases is 35.1 percent," he added.
Kashmir has witnessed an extremely low turnout in the last three phases of its much-anticipated polls. Around 16.4 per cent turnout was recorded in the third phase of Urban Local Bodies (ULB) elections with Srinagar witnessing the lowest at 1.8 per cent voter turnout on Saturday.
Meanwhile, overall turnout in the second phase of ULB polls was 31.3 per cent, with Kashmir witnessing the lowest of 3.4 percent turnout. Around 56.7 per cent turnout was recorded across Jammu and Kashmir, but the valley only recorded a low 8.3 percent voting in the first phase of polling.
Counting of the votes is scheduled to be held on October 20 across Jammu and Kashmir. "All arrangements have been put in place for counting", said Kabra.
Municipal polls were held in four phases from October 8 to 16. There are 79 municipal bodies with an electorate of about 17 lakh. Out of the total 1,145 wards, 90 wards have been reserved for Scheduled Castes and 38 wards for Scheduled Tribes, which includes 31 and 13 wards reserved for SC and ST women respectively. In addition, 322 wards have been reserved for women.
National Conference, PDP, CPIM and others boycotted the polls over the issue of Article 35A. However, Congress and Peoples Conference led by separatist-turned-MLA Sajad Lone participated in the polls.
Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) of separatists have commended the people for showing what they called "political maturity and commitment to the cause of self determination by a comprehensive boycott of this election."
‘NOT A BIRD HARMED’
- “Not a bird was harmed” and the civic elections were conducted peacefully, said J&K Governor Satya Pal Malik
- Also said the NC and the PDP should not have boycotted it and asserted that articles 35A and 370 of the Constitution were non-issues in this election
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