Voting for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Elections began on a smooth note in Golconda, Attapur, Rajendra Nagar, Tolichowki and Langar Houz wards at 7 a.m. on Tuesday.
Largely, polling started at the scheduled hour, and voters began to arrive right since 7 am.
Voting was rather slow during the first hour, and instances of voters being denied entry despite showing identity proof documents were reported.
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There were also minor arguments over carrying cellphones inside the polling booths.
“We will not be able to prevent young people from clicking photographs if we allow cellphones inside. That is prohibited. You cannot take cellphones inside,” a police official told a voter at MPPS Government School, Erra Bodda in the Rajendra Nagar ward. “All the information is here. I will switch it off if you want,” said the voter. Finally, the voters were allowed to keep the phone on a table near the police officials as they went inside and voted. Similar arguments were witnessed at many polling stations in different wards of the city.
In the Golconda ward, as the distribution of voter slips was not completed, the representatives of the candidates had to step in to help voters.
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While social distancing norms in the light of COVID-19 pandemic were expected to be followed, all the polling stations were clearly not prepared. While some had the markings to keep the distance in queues, at other polling stations there were no markings.
Over 74 lakh voters from 150 divisions of GHMC have a chance to exercise their franchise today at 9101 polling stations across the city.