Going by the provisional figures, Dakshina Kannada saw a dip in voter turnout at 72.38 per cent in the Legislative Assembly elections on Sunday. In the 2008 Assembly elections, the district recorded 73.28 per cent polling.
71 contestants were in the fray. This time there were 15 lakh registered voters, 7.58 lakh of them women. There were8,209 booths in 967 buildings. About 4,100 security personnel provided security. Polling passed off peacefully.
Complaints
There were complaints of many names missing from the voters’ list or wrong photos appearing against their names. Many people who had applied for inclusion of their names in the special drive undertaken under the instruction of Election Commission were disappointed to know that their names did not figure in the list. The district administration could act upon as many as 60,000 applications.
Elderly persons walking up to the polling booths were a common sight. In many booths in rural areas, young voters were fewer.
There was good turnout of voters in areas considered ‘naxal-hit’ such as Naravi and Kutlur. At 3 p.m. in a polling booth in Naravi (No. 3) 490 out of 815 had cast their votes by 3 p.m. Some voters residing in area such as Noojadi, Mapal and Alambe had to come from a distance of 8 km to the booths.
Though polling was dull in Ullal in the morning it picked up subsequently.
