Security up around counting centres

Samaan Lateef

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, October 19

The authorities in Kashmir have beefed up security around the counting centres of 10 districts for the counting of 30,739 votes, polled in the four phases of the urban local bodies elections, on Saturday.

The Chief Electoral Office has decentralised the election process in Kashmir and the counting of votes will take place in the respective district headquarters.

The election authorities have established 20 halls at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre in Srinagar for the counting of 18,482 votes polled in the 74 wards of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC). Eight candidates have won unopposed from the SMC.

A total of 19,550 votes of the 6,12,122 were polled in central Kashmir’s Srinagar, Ganderbal and Budgam districts. The counting of votes in Ganderbal and Budgam will take place in the respective district headquarters.

Similarly, the counting of 1,0529 votes polled out of 65,146 in north Kashmir’s three districts — Kupwara, Baramulla, and Bandipora — will be held at the respective district headquarters.

The central Kashmir districts recorded a voter turnout of 5.1 per cent while as the north Kashmir districts recorded 16.2 per cent voter turnout.

The violence-hit south Kashmir recorded the lowest turnout of 1.6 per cent as only 660 votes were polled out of 40,004 in the 20 municipalities spread over four districts. The authorities have put in adequate security arrangements in the district headquarters of south Kashmir for counting.

The municipal polls were held in four phases in Kashmir on October 8, 10, 13 and 16. Due to militant threats and poll boycott by separatists and Kashmir’s two major mainstream political parties — National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party — the voter turnout in the elections was low. Only 4.3 per cent voting was recorded in the 10 districts of Kashmir.

The municipal elections are being held for the first time since 2005 when the voter turnout was 48 per cent. In the past seven decades, the municipal elections were held only four times. The elections of 2005 took place after 27 years.

In a house of 68, the National Conference (NC) had bagged a comfortable majority in the 2005 elections by bagging 41 seats, thus retaining its hold in the area. The PDP had managed 17 seats while the Congress had taken only six seats. Senior NC leader Ghulam Mustafa Bhat was elected the first-ever mayor of the SMC.

Due to the boycott by the NC and the PDP, the BJP and its ally People’s Conference is likely to win the maximum number of seats in the municipal elections.

People’s Conference president Sajad Lone on Thursday hinted that the Srinagar mayor would be from his party.

“All set inshallah to have the first mayor from the Peoples Conference. Expecting very good results. Time to give Srinagar what it deserves. A set of hardworking people who work there on the ground,” Lone wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

Lone, who is a legislator from north Kashmir’s Handwara constituency, also hoped to win from other municipalities of north Kashmir.

“And the PC is all set to take over urban bodies in Kupwara, Handwara, Langet, Sumbal, Pattan, among others. Let us hope we are able to contribute to planned urbanisation which I believe is the future,” he tweeted.

Process decentralised

• The Chief Electoral Office has decentralised the election process in Kashmir and the counting of votes will take place in the respective district headquarters
• The election authorities have established 20 halls at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre in Srinagar for the counting of 18,482 votes polled in the 74 wards of the Srinagar MC
• A total of 19,550 votes of the 6,12,122 were polled in central Kashmir's Srinagar, Ganderbal and Budgam districts. The counting of votes in Ganderbal and Budgam will take place in the respective district headquarters