The city Corporation’s poll, to collect public opinion on the regions to be included in the local body’s Smart City proposal to be submitted to the Central government, managed to generate only moderate interest among the people in the city.
Queues were absent in most of the wards in the city, although a window of just three hours was available for each ward. As per the Corporation’s official figures, 54,462 people cast their votes in the opinion polls across the 100 wards on Saturday. This figure does not include the votes collected from various government offices, educational institutions, and from ballot boxes placed in public spaces like Thampanoor, Shanghumukhom and elsewhere.
“The response was good in many wards, including Vizhinjam and Kazhakuttam, where long queues were visible. The polling in places will continue for two more days and hence we expect the numbers to touch at least 1.5 lakhs,” says a Corporation source.
However, opposition councillors dispute these numbers, citing the voting pattern in their own wards. “In Karamana ward, I cast my vote at 11.30 a.m., when there was just 30 minutes left for polling.
At that time, only 40 people had cast their votes. Anyway, Karamana and areas after that are not in the running to be part of the Smart City plan. People were therefore not interested,” says BJP councillor Karamana Ajith.
This lack of incentive to vote has been a problem in some of the wards.
The city Corporation had conducted marketing campaigns through social media, FM radio stations, and other media. But the Smart City poll hardly became a conversation among the masses.
Even among those who queued up to vote, there was some level of confusion on what the whole project entailed and what they are actually voting for.
In the end, the polling became the namesake execution of a process that was stipulated by the Central government for Smart City proposal for all cities.
