The elections to the City Municipal Council and other local bodies of the district are over. As expected, the turnout for this election has been dismal, to say the least. With the general public staying away from the polling booths, political parties are experiencing anxiety attacks like never before. The hard hit are the candidates who have had first hand experience of ‘voter indifference.’

However, barring a few stray incidents, polling was by and large, peaceful. Most of the parties could be seen indulging in exercises of introspection following poor voter turn out.

Early birds

Meanwhile, Sericulture Minister Sogadu Shivanna and his wife Nagaratna Shivanna cast their votes in Chikpet ward for the CMC election early in the morning. Leaders of other parties also cast their votes in the morning. The fate of the candidates will be decided on the evening of September 30 and the voters’ decision has already been cast. Counting of votes will begin in all taluk centres in the morning.

Delay

But the counting is expected to take more time as everything - from sorting to counting - will be done manually as electronic voting machines have not been used in these elections. Therefore, there may be a slight delay in announcing the result, says Deputy Commissioner  S R Umashankar, who is also the district election officer.

The counting of votes for the CMC election will be held at the Government Polytechnic on B H Road. Tiptur CMC votes will be counted at Pallagatti Adavappa Arts and Commerce College and Sira CMC votes will be counted at St Ann’s Convent on Changavara Road. Apart from this, Mahatma Gandhi Government Pre University College in Kunigal, Taluk Office in Chikkanayakanahalli, Government First Grade College in Madhugiri, Government PU Colleges in Pavagada, Gubbi, Turuvekere and Koratagere respectively will be the counting centres for the local body elections, the DC informed reporters.

Security measures

After voting ended, ballot boxes were brought to their respective counting centres under tight security and were kept under seal. Prohibitory orders have been clamped around the counting centres and only official election staff and candidates are allowed to enter. Moreover, sale of liquor has been banned on voting day i.e., Friday as well as on the day of result, Sunday.

The District Election Officer S R Umashankar, Superintendant of Police P Harishekharan and other staff toured those polling booths which were categorised as sensitive and hyper-sensitive all morning and ensured smooth voting.

Indelible ink was used to mark the voters who had cast their votes. However, those who did not have the voter’s identity card or any of the 19 documents as required by the election commission were not allowed to exercise their franchise.

Polling booths 13 and 14 coming under Ward no 11 in Sira CMC were shifted to Vasavi Educational Society as the stipulated venue had been rendered weak by incessant rains. Voting was held for 234 wards including 35 of Tumkur CMC and 31 each of Sira and Tiptur CMCs. As many as 419774 voters exercised their franchise, out of whom a record 211862 are in Tumkur city while Tiptur has 46075 and Sira 33876 voters respectively.

The district administration has banned all victory celebrations after announcement of results.