308 polling stations set up for 2.5 lakh voters
52 elected unopposed, no nominations in 44 Wards
Sanjeev Pargal/Fayaz Bukhari
JAMMU/SRINAGAR, Oct 15: Polling in fourth and final phase of Municipal elections will be held in 37 Wards in Srinagar and Ganderbal districts of the Kashmir valley tomorrow for which 156 candidates are trying their luck and the State Election Commission has set up 308 polling stations while authorities have deployed para-military and police personnel in huge numbers to ensure violence-free turnout, like the previous three phases.
A total of 2,50, 794 electorates are eligible to exercise their right to franchise for tomorrow’s voting, Chief Electoral Officer, Shaleen Kabra said, in an official statement issued tonight.
Official sources told the Excelsior that polling was scheduled to be held in 132 Wards of Kashmir in the final phase tomorrow but due to unopposed election of 52 candidates and no nomination being received for 44 Wards, voting will be held only in 36 Wards of two districts-Srinagar and Ganderbal involving Srinagar Municipal Corporation and Ganderbal Municipal Committee and repoll in another Ward of SMC.
Kabra said 12 Wards of Ganderbal Municipal Committee would go to polls tomorrow for which 8491 electorates would decide the fate of 38 candidates. The Election Commission has set up 12 polling stations in Ganderbal MC i.e. one polling station each for one Ward.
Twenty-four Wards of Srinagar Municipal Corporation will go to polls tomorrow involving total electorates of 2,41,043. A total of 113 candidates are in the fray for these 24 Wards and 295 polling stations have been set up.
Re-poll will be held at one Polling Station No. 9 Bachidarwaza of Makhdoom Sahab of Ward No. 41 in Srinagar Municipal Corporation for which 1260 voters are eligible to cast votes. Five candidates are in the fray.
The Wards that are going to polls in Srinagar Municipal Corporation tomorrow are New-Theed, Harwan, Nishat, Brane, Dalgate, Pantha Chowk, Palapora, Tarabal, Kawdara, Hawal, Alamgari-Bazar, Gilli-Kadal, Nowshara, Lal-Bazar, Botshah-Mohalla, Umer-Colony, Jogi-Lankar, Kathi-Darwaza, Lokut-Dal, Bud-Dal, Hazratbal, Tailbal, Habbak, Chatterhama, Zakura Soura, Buchpora and Ahmad-Nagar.
Sources said arrangements have been made for smooth conduct of the polls which are scheduled to begin at 6 am and end at 4 pm. Para-military and police personnel have been deployed in large numbers at the polling stations while sanitization operations were conducted by security forces in poll-bound areas.
Election staff and polling material have reached respective polling stations in view of early start of the voting.
Eight Urban Local Bodies spanning across six districts — all in Kashmir valley — were scheduled to go for polls tomorrow in the fourth and final phase. However, out of the eight only two will see voting. There will be no contest in the rest of the six bodies in view of election of some of the candidates without any contest due to only one nomination paper while some other Wards won’t go to polls as not even a single nomination was filed for them.
However, Pattan Municipal Committee in Baramulla district of North Kashmir, Pampore, Pulwama and Khrew in Pulwama district in South, Shopian Municipal Committee in Shopian district in South and Dooru Verinag in Anantnag district also in South Kashmir will see no voting.
Together these six bodies have 90 wards. While candidates from 11 Wards out of the total 13 in the Pattan Municipal body have been elected unopposed, two Wards received no nomination papers.
Not a single nomination paper was submitted in any of the 13 Wards of Khrew Municipal Committee. In Pampore Municipal body, which has 17 Wards, five candidates were elected unopposed, while 12 Wards received no nomination papers.
Out of the 13 Wards in Pulwama Municipal Committee, no candidate was in the fray in 11 Wards while two candidates were elected uncontested.
In 17 Wards of Shopian, 12 were elected without contest, while five Wards received no nominations.
While one ward received no nomination in the Municipal body of Dooru Verinag, 16 candidates were elected uncontested.
In total, out of the 132 Wards across the eight bodies, 44 Wards received no nominations, while 52 Wards saw candidates getting elected without contest.
National Conference, along with PDP and CPI(M), have boycotted the polls due to the legal challenge to Article 35-A of the Constitution in the Supreme Court.
The voter turnout in the first two phases of the civic polls in the Valley has been low. While 8.3 per cent of the electorate turned up to vote in the 83 Wards in the first phase on October 8, the poll percentage fell to an abysmal 3.4 in the second phase held on October 10.
The third phase of polling for civic bodies in Kashmir on October 13 witnessed a low turnout of just 3.49 per cent, in line with the trend set in the first two phases.
Contrary to this, voting percentage was very high in all 10 districts of Jammu and two in Ladakh regions, where 70 to 80 percent turnout was recorded and all Municipal bodies saw keenly contested elections. Only eight candidates had been elected unopposed in entire Jammu region while not a single Ward went uncontested in Ladakh region.
Overall poll percentage in the first three Phases has been 41.9 across the State.
CEO Shaleen Kabra said that Basic Minimum Facilities (BMF) have been ensured in all the polling stations across the State for voting. He said Photo Voter Slips have been distributed among the voters to inform them of their polling station.
Kabra said senior Government officers have been appointed as General Observers to oversee the smooth, fair and orderly conduct of polls.
“Expenditure Observers are also keeping a watch on expenditure by the candidates,” he said and added that for the poll day Micro Observers have been deployed in polling stations, particularly those considered sensitive/ hypersensitive.
“Besides, the Zonal and Sector Magistrates have been deployed to ensure smooth conduct of polls as well as monitoring the entire process,” Kabra said and added that the Deputy Commissioners are undertaking Videography of all critical events related to the poll process.
He said Control Rooms have been established in all the Municipal Bodies across the State to respond promptly to any complaints of violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) as also to disseminate information to the public. He said adequate security arrangements have been made for smooth conduct of polling across the State.
He said the Government has also declared holiday on the day of poll in the Municipal areas going to polls so as to enable the voters to cast their vote. He said as per standing guidelines, the Central Government offices will not be closed but the employees who are electors of the poll going wards and desire to exercise their franchise will be offered reasonable facility- by way of coming late to office / allowed to leave office early / short absence.
The CEO urged voters to exercise their right to franchise in order to choose their local self-government to address to their local needs.
Pertinently, Municipal Elections-2018 are being held in four phases, covering 79 Municipal bodies with an electorate of about 17 lakh. A total of 3372 nominations were filed for 1145 Wards.
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