Officials blame heat, summer vacation for slight dip in polling

Sandeep Rana

Chandigarh, June 2

While the UT Election Commission has attributed lower voting percentage to heatwave and summer vacation, voters from colonies say poor management is one of the main reasons for low polling this time.

In most polling stations in urban areas, people cast vote within a few minutes. But in small colonies, which witnessed huge crowds of voters, people had to wait for hours in the sweltering heat to exercise their franchise.

At polling stations in some urban areas, e-carts were pressed into service to ferry people from the gate to the booth. The scene was chaotic in colonies where voters waiting in the scorching sun were jostling with each another to get their hands on water bottles or to find a spot near desert coolers.

“Voters from colonies and villages are the ones who celebrate the festival of democracy enthusiastically, but they are neglected and treated like animals. There was no system yesterday. At a polling booth in Sector 53, there was one queue for five booths. People waited for four-five hours in queues in this extremely hot weather. Many of them left without casting vote. The voting percentage could have improved, had the crowd been managed well,” shared president of BJP’s Purvanchal Prakoshth Gopal Pappu Shukla.

“The Election Commission talked of providing water, coolers and tents, but there was no such facility for most people in colonies. It was a joke with the poor as I saw people getting restless and fainting in the scorching heat. The administration should have set up more polling booths for them and made arrangements for separate queues for senior citizens and first-time voters,” he said, adding that the system failed completely.

Chandigarh Tribune spoke to voters in Sector 25, Maloya and Dhanas yesterday. They said officials turned a deaf ear when they complained they had been standing in queues for hours.

The Election Commission here has attributed 2.56% lower turnout than the last LS election to various factors. The total polling stood at 67.9 per cent. It was 70.54 per cent in the last LS poll and 73.69 per cent in 2014.

A senior officer said, “First of all, there is a national trend of lower voting this time. Extended heatwave, summer vacation and polling on weekend are the other factors behind lower voting percentage. Importantly, to avoid heat, most people turned up in the morning, hence a huge rush.” He, however, claimed they provided all facilities and did their best to manage the crowd.

Colonies in Kajheri, Dhanas, Maloya, Palsora, Dadu Majra, Mani Majra, Mauli Jagran, Hallo Majra, Ram Darbar and others saw serpentine queues of voters. Roughly, 46 per cent voters of the electorate reside in colonies.

e-carts for Sector 16 voters

While residents of colonies waited for hours in the scorching sun, in Sector 16, where most bureaucrats reside, an e-cart ferried voters from the gate to the polling booth at Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 16. Only a handful of voters were seen at the booth at a time.