Kerala - Kannur   

Heavy and peaceful polling in Kannur

KANNUR: Contrary to anticipation of tension on the polling day in the Kannur Assembly byelection on Saturday, the polling was astonishingly peaceful and incident-free with the police personnel, including those of the Central police force, maintaining high alert against any sign of electoral malpractices and trouble-making. According to official figures, 79.06 per cent of voters cast their votes in the constituency.

The polling was held amidst unprecedented police arrangements in and outside polling stations with the personnel of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) actively involved in the arrangements to ensure free, fair and peaceful election in the constituency. If the totally peaceful and incident-free polling in the constituency appeared too strange to be real, especially in the context of the high-voltage election campaign that lasted till the run-up to the polling, the momentum of high percentage of polling that started from the first hour of polling itself and continued till the last hour was unprecedented, especially in the polling booths located in and around the town.

Officials said that 79.06 per cent of the total 1,33,000-odd voters in the constituency cast their votes in the byelection. The polling percentage crossed 71 per cent by 4.30 p.m. The polling percentage in the 2006 Assembly election was 74.29 per cent. According to the election control room here, polling continued in a 11 booths after 5 p.m. as there were queues of voters waiting to cast their votes. Heavy rain after the polling time caused some inconvenience to voters and polling officials in some areas.

Some of the newly enrolled voters, who were identified as absentee/shifted in an official verification under the direction of the Election Commission following complaints of the United Democratic Front (UDF) that large number of voters from neighbouring constituencies had been transferred to the Kannur constituency by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) to capture the constituency, were allowed to cast their votes after taking their biometric fingerprints.

Among the leaders who cast their votes in different polling booths in the constituency in the early hours of the

polling included Union Minister of State for Railways E. Ahamed, K. Sudhakaran, MP, former Minister and Communist Marxist Party leader M.V. Raghavan, UDF candidate A.P. Abdullakutty and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate K. Ranjith.

The UDF leadership here expressed satisfaction over the security arrangements made in all 119 polling booths and 10 auxiliary booths in the constituency. The UDF had alleged large-scale manipulation in the electoral roll and accused the CPI(M) of attempts to subvert the byelection by getting large number of party supporters from outside the constituency enrolled in the electoral roll using fake residency certificates. Mr. Abdullakutty said that it was exciting to see unusually heavy polling in the early hours of the election, which he described as an indication of the people’s readiness to come out to oppose “fake voters” included in the electoral roll. He, however, alleged that large number of CPI(M) supporters from outside who were enrolled in the constituency polled their votes.

Left Democratic Front candidate M.V. Jayarajan, who did not have a vote in the constituency, said that the presence of the Central force would in no way affect the prospects of the LDF in the election. “People’s verdict is something that you cannot buy up even if the American military is deployed in the constituency,” he said. He also alleged attempts of UDF workers to intimidate voters in some areas in the constituency.

Mr. Jayarajan said some LDF workers at Mukkadavu area here were attacked on Friday.

“Now the Central force is inside (the booths) and (Chief Minister) V.S. Achuthanandan is outside,” Mr. Sudhakaran said taking a dig at the Chief Minister who had said that the Central forces would be confined to the barracks on the polling day.

The MP said the presence of the CISF personnel had helped instil confidence in the voters.

District Collector and District Election Officer P.B. Saleem and Superintendent of Police Anup Kuruvila John and Election Observers Sandeep Saxena and Saurav Garg visited almost all polling stations in the constituency.

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Heavy and peaceful polling in Kannur

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