Data with the state election commission (SEC) indicates that approximately 21.23% of those who voted in the elections did not vote for three candidates which they could have done.
The results of the recent civic elections may have been very different — at least for some candidates if not for whole
municipal corporations — if voters had cast all the three votes every voter in a ward was entitled to.
Data with the state election commission (SEC) indicates that approximately 21.23% of those who voted in the elections did not vote for three candidates which they could have done.
Instead, they voted for just one or two candidates. As a result, the political parties and the independent candidates in the fray collectively lost 24,35,869 votes.
In the six municipal corporations where elections were held, there was a difference of 74,550 to 7,00,000 votes between the number of votes that could have been cast and the votes actually polled. In Bhavnagar, for instance, a total of 1,67,877 people voted. If all these people had cast three votes each, the total number of votes cast in Bhavnagar should have been 5,03,631.
But the actual number of votes cast is only 4,29,081, which is 74,550 less than the possible figure. The most surprising poll statistics have been received from Vadodara, which is supposed to have more literate voters than other municipal corporations. The city registered nearly 50% less votes than what would have been the number had every voter exercised his franchise fully.
A total of 5,06,982 people voted in Vadodara. If each voter had cast all the three votes he was entitled to, the total number of votes polled would have been 15,20,946. But the actual number is only 8,14,316 votes.
Similarly, Surat lost 5,26,303 votes, Rajkot lost 3,59,926, Jamnagar lost 95,150 and Ahmedabad lost 6,73,869 votes.
The political parties who contested the elections, and the SEC, give different explanations for why so many people failed to cast all the three votes each voter was entitled to. SEC officials say that many people are not aware that each voter can cast three votes to elect the three representatives that each ward must have.
The SEC secretary, PS Shah, said many voters confuse the votes system in the civic elections with the ‘single-vote per voter’ system of assembly and parliamentary polls.
“Hence, in civic polls, too, many
voters press only one button, not realizing that they can vote for three people,” Shah said. Turn to p14
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