Like in the Assembly elections in May, urban voter apathy was displayed again in the elections to the Mysuru City Corporation on Friday in across three urban Assembly constituencies here which recorded lacklustre polling percentage.
Election after election, urban voters are seeming apathetic to the entire democratic exercise, staying away from voting, which is their constitutional right.
Despite several efforts, through Systematic Voter Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) and social media campaigns, the turn-out could not cross 60% in the May elections. With voters from cities averse to elections, this has been contributing to poor voting percentage, which continues to be a challenge for the Election Commission.
The three constituencies in Mysuru urban area – Krishnaraja, Chamaraja and Narasimharaja, that have a sizeable chunk of educated voters, recorded low voter turnout in the 2013 and 2018 Assembly elections. Chamaraja, Krishnaraja and Narasimharaja segments recorded polling of 55.11%, 58.49% and 54.44%, respectively.
The poor voting percentage drew the attention of the EC which identified these segments as high-focus constituencies as part of the SVEEP drive to improve voter turnout.
At 9 a.m., the it was 6.04% which rose to 14.49% at 11 a.m., 25.62 at 1 p.m. and 35.28 percent at 3 pm. The final percentage is awaited with polling still on in some booths even after 5 pm, the cut-off time for voting.
Rural voters shine
If the voting percentage in T. Narsipur, H.D. Kote and Periyapatna, where the ULB elections took place on Friday, is an indication, rural voters were turning out to be more conscious and conscientious. The tentative polling at these places are: T. Narsipur, 73.24%; Periyapatna, 79.48%; and H.D. Kote, 76.81%.
Mandatory voting and provisions for online voting were being cited by many activists as solutions to increasing voter turnout.
Setting an example
Many elderly persons, despite health issues, were seen enthusiastically participating in the elections.
Senior citizen Somashekar and his wife, who are the residents of Saraswathipuram, were frantically searching for their names in the list since they were not found in the usual booth where they had been voting all this while. They were seen enquiring with the people around the booths to help locate their names as they did not want to miss the opportunity to vote.
