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| Empty polling booths |
| Polling officials wait for voters to turn up at a booth in Triplicane during the election to 67 wards in the Corporation
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| INDIA
, 19-February-2007
2:34:58 AM |
| Barring a sudden flurry of voting in the afternoon in some wards, voters did not turn up in large numbers for the Chennai Corporation by-elections to 67 wards on Sunday.
Despite the Corporation and the police asking the people "to come and vote without fear," the voting percentage in many wards was less than 25 per cent. Booths across the city wore an empty look for most part of the day.
State Election Commissioner D. Chandrasekaran estimated the voter turnout to be around 30 per cent, at least 4 percentage points below the Corporation elections in 2001 and 25 percentage points below the violence-marred polls last October, when the elections were held to all the wards.
Sporadic incidents
Sporadic incidents were reported through the day — including altercations between cadres of various parties at polling booths in Chepauk, Ice House and Saidapet.
Polling agents of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) alleged that a few persons arrived at the polling station for ward 142 (Beemannapet in Alwarpet) in 3 autorickshaws and cast bogus votes. They said the election officials did not accept their complaints.
Police dispersed clashing groups at the Madras Matriculation School on Monegar Choultry Road at Royapuram in the morning. The cadres came to blows over allegations of booth capturing. Polling, though, continued without any disruption even as the police took action.
Several booths in North Chennai, areas that traditionally record high turnout, remained deserted, with the polling percentage below 10 per cent till 11 a.m. However, small queues started forming between noon and 3 p.m. and much of the votes were registered during that period.
Barring Corporation Zone 6 (Triplicane), where election officials estimated the turnout at around 50 per cent, voter apathy was evident in the other 9 zones.
The booths were totally deserted in Zone 5 (Anna Nagar) through the day.
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