Local polls: Just 3.4 per cent turnout in Kashmir

SRINAGAR: Polling was on Wednesday held for the second phase of the four-phased municipal elections in restive Jammu and Kashmir amid tight security.

According to Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shaleen Kabra, overall 31.3 percent polling was recorded, which is 25.4 percent less than witnessed in the first phase of the elections on Monday.

Mr Kabra said that while in Jammu division of the State 78.6 per cent polling was witnessed in 214 wards that went to polls on Wednesday, the turnout was just 3.4 per cent in the 49 wards of the Kashmir Valley.

He also said that Bandipore district of the Valley recorded the highest 35.6 percent voting whereas it was 84.4 percent in Reasi. The cumulative polling percentage till date, he said, is 47.2 percent with 67.7 percent voting recorded in Jammu division and 8.3 percent in Kashmir division in Phase-I and Phase-II elections. As many 1,029 candidates are in the fray for 263 municipal wards for the phase two of the elections and 43,6285 out of 933,000 voters have exercised their franchise out in the two phases.

Voting at 544 stations and booths began at 6 am on Wednesday morning amid tightest security bandobast and ended at 4 pm.

As major political parties National Conference and Peoples’ Democratic Party are along with CPIM and BSP boycotting both municipal and panchayat elections, as many as 65 candidates — 61 of them from Kashmir Valley — have already won the polls uncontested, while in 56 wards — all in the Valley — no nomination was received and, therefore, no polling is being held in these wards. A total of 3,372 nominations have been filed for 1,145 wards. The next phases will take place on October 13 and 16.