Congress sees big dip in voter turnout in GHMC election

Hyderabad: The Congress party opined that measures adopted by the State Election Commission (SEC) for the GHMC elections amid COVID-19 will have direct impact on the voters' turnout and poll percentage. Citing health of voters was paramount to the party, the party chose not to respond to SEC which had sought 'option' between EVM and ballot from political parties by September end.

A senior Congress leader said that the given option by the Election Commission was not supported by the expert opinion in wake of corona pandemic. The process shrouded in mystery would not be able to encourage voters who would come out risking their lives. "The risks involved should be minimized, as people's health is paramount and voters would be taking risk while exercising their franchise," he noted

"If the SEC fails to come up with reasoning for risks involved and discloses the pros and cons of using EVM or ballot for the Municipal elections, how can it be able to win the confidence of voters. The decisions made without scientific evaluation would obviously have an impact on the overall voter turnout, which is around 50 % in normal days," he said.

With some 75 lakhs voters under the GHMC limits, around 35 lakhs to 40 lakhs are expected to vote under normal circumstances. But with the Covidd-19 still persistent the number of voters may drop drastically. Even though the SEC is coming up with measures but without expert advice on usage of ballot or EVMs would prove to be a futile exercise.

It may be mentioned here that a delegation of TPCC Election Commission Coordination Committee met the State Election Commissioner C Parthasarathi at his office on September 25. During the meeting, the Committee members questioned the process which was being taken forward without taking into consideration the opinions of Opposition parties. Referring to TRS's decision to go for 'option' of ballot boxes, the committee pointed out that the party failed to mention any 'reasoning' for it.

"This throws 'serious apprehensions' that reservations were made arbitrarily, without reference to polling booth wise census data. The Election Commission has failed to respond and hence we decided to not to commit any of the options provided by the SEC," added the leader.