Town panchayats and municipalities saw a better voter turnout than municipal corporations during the civic elections held on Saturday.
A perusal of the district-wise breakdown of the turnout (as at 3 p.m.), released by the State Election Commission, revealed that barring the district of Tiruchi, all others, having municipal corporations along with the other two types of urban local bodies, had recorded a significant difference between the turnout of the corporations and that of the town panchayats or the municipalities. (Chennai has not been included in this set of districts as there is no other type of local body in the city than the municipal corporation.]
The overall voter turnout was 61.38% in the town panchayats and 53.49%. in municipalities, whereas it was 39.13% for the municipal corporations.
Even the fact that the newly formed municipal corporations faced elections for the first time did not excite people to come out in large numbers. For example, in Cuddalore, which was upgraded by the present DMK government as a municipal corporation in October, the turnout was 49.25%, whereas in the same district, the town panchayats and the municipalities recorded 60.81% and 60.02% respectively.
In the south, the picture was no different in Kanniyakumari district which has the Nagercoil municipal corporation. The district’s town panchayats and municipalities recorded 53.99% and 46.31% respectively as against 42.47% in Nagercoil. Tiruchi seems to be the exception with all types of local bodies having a turnout in the range of 55% to 58%
Political leaders and academics point out that traditionally, urban voters have fared poorly, compared with voters in rural areas irrespective of the elections — Lok Sabha, Assembly and local bodies. There are several factors that influence the voter behaviour. In the case of the urban local bodies, one of the factors is the average size of wards. In respect of the town panchayats, it is around 800 and in municipalities, about 1,720. In Chennai, nearly 30,900 electors constitute a ward as against 11,430 in the remaining 20 municipal corporations. The bigger the ward, the lower the chances of bondage between voters and candidates.
Talking of other factors, Durai Murugan, DMK’s general secretary and Water Resources Minister, says the feature of top government representatives directly involving themselves in matters and issues concerning the municipal corporations also makes people evince less interest in their local bodies. P.K. Sekar Babu, a prominent face of the ruling party in Chennai and Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Minister, feels the COVID-19 pandemic is another factor that has influenced the voter behaviour. He recalls that even in 2011, Chennai’s turnout did not even cross the 50%-mark.
D. Jayakumar, AIADMK’s organisation secretary, says the possibility of having to face violence may have also driven away voters in Chennai. M.C. Sampath, former Minister and the Opposition party’s key leader in Cuddalore, observes that upwardly mobile sections of society in Tier-I cities have been indifferent to the civic polls.
G. Palanithurai, a veteran academic in political science and public administration, says there is a need for eliminating the negative factor surrounding councillors of the municipal corporations. If that is done, there will be an improvement in the turnout. P. Ramajayam, another academic, points to the degree of political mobilisation by parties. “Had there been intense competition among the parties, the participation would have been high,” he observes.
D.R. Sivasamy, president of the Confederation of Organisations for Integrated Urban Development, says all the three types of local bodies would have witnessed a higher turnout had the elections been held on non-party lines.
