Bengaluru civic polls: Every second voter played truant

BENGALURU: When BBMP and the State Elec tion Commis sion (SEC) organized voter awareness campaigns in the run up to the civic body polls, they expected a voter turnout of 60% on August 22. However, when they compiled the voter turnout data from all 197 wards, they found half of the voters hadn't turned up.
State election commissioner P N Srinivasachary on Sunday said only 49.31% voters exercised their franchise in the BBMP polls."Though it is a 5.25% increase over the previous civic polls held in 2010, it is sad to know that the polling percentage continues to be low in the city.We had done our best to create voter awareness through campaigns and other initiatives.This time a lot of college students and non-profit organizations were roped in to urge the public to come out and vote," he said adding that the polling was peaceful at all centres and there is no need of re-polling anywhere.
BBMP chief G Kumar Naik expressed hope that in coming years the percentage would further go up. "Counting of votes will start at 8 am in 27 centres on Tuesday and the results will be out by afternoon. As many as 304 polling officers along with 3,180 counting officials will be on duty," he said. Naik said there will be a ban on sale of liquor from 6 am to 8 pm on Tuesday.

No polling at graveyard now:
When asked about a polling booth being located at the graveyard complex in TR Mills of Chamarajpet, due to which voters and polling staff faced inconvenience and many voters didn't turn up, Srinivasachary said they would ensure polling is not held at the centre from now. "We will make sure the polling centre is shifted to a nearby school building. This time, the problem didn't come to our notice as the centre has been a polling station for many elections," he added.
In fact, tech hub fares well:
Doddanekkundi in Whitefield area, coming under the Mahadevapura assembly constituency, which finds itself at the bottom of the chart of 197 wards, with only 37.8% polling, is an exception when it comes to the tech hub.
"In fact, all the other wards including Garudachar Palya (56.34%), Kadugodi (54.89%), Hagaduru (55.68%) and Marathahalli (53.49%) have recorded excellent voting figures, which are much higher than the average voting of the city, which stands at 49%," said Zibi Jamal of Whitefield Rising.
Some wards under Bommanahalli, where the overall voting percentage is low and migrant population is high, have also done well.