LUCKNOW Missing names, misspelt names, wrong names and other anomalies in the electoral rolls led to low voting percentage in the first phase of urban local body (ULB) polls, said citizens expressing their opinion on social media platforms.
On Thursday, many people couldn’t exercise their franchise as the names or photos on the list did not match with their voter identity and they had to return home disappointed.
“Due to voter list anomalies, a number of people, including some trader leaders, were not able to cast their votes. We need to fix responsibility of officials because of whom such incidents happen,” said Amarnath Mishra, chief warden, Lucknow, and trader leader.
“I have a list of people who were not able to exercise their franchise. This cannot be justified in a democratic system…this is why the voting percentage remained low in the state capital,” he added.
Mishra said, “I don’t understand why there are separate voter lists for Assembly, Lok Sabha and civic polls. Ideally, there should be one list, which should be revised every year to include and exclude names. But it’s the jurisdiction of the State Election Commission.”
Ekta Gautam, a voter who was not allowed to exercise her franchise, said: “Names of many voters were missing and they were left disheartened.”
“Several names, including mine and a family member, were missing from the list,” said Congress leader Sadaf Jafar.
AP Tewari, a retired professor, said: “Dismal turnout, indeed. Voters’ indifference is the core factor, which needs to be researched.”
“In some cases, people were denied voting because photos or names on the list did not match with their voter identity cards. Booth level officers (BLOs) were not taking the complaints seriously and that’s why people struggled to search their names on the list and eventually went back dejected,” said a prominent trader of the city.
“As a result, the voting percentage of the city dropped in comparison to 2017. Democracy will suffer if the Election Commission doesn’t take serious note of this,” he added.
However for major political parties, the civic elections are semi-finals before the Lok Sabha elections.
Samajwadi Party spokesperson Ashutosh Varma said, “The second phase is yet to come. The low percentage of voting is a cause of concern for any political party as only 38.62% voting was recorded in Lucknow, 40.58% in Varanasi, 33.61% in Prayagraj, 42.43% in Gorakhpur and 40.32% in Agra in municipal elections.”
“It’s a cause of concern for any democracy if more than 50% voters are not turning up at polling booths. In 2017, the voter turnout in Lucknow was 39.99%. And this time, 1.37% less people have voted,” he said.
Mukesh Singh, former corporator and Congress spokesperson, said: “It’s not the question of BJP, Samajwadi or Congress voters’ names missing from the list. Such anomalies raise a question mark on the system. It’s for the State Election Commission and district administration to fix the problem.”
However, some insiders of the district administration said that some of the BLOs were transferred just before the polling day, and such a situation, new BLOs were not able to help voters with missing names.
A senior official of the district administration said, “BLOs would be asked to explain the missing names in their areas, but voters will also have to remain vigilant. The district administration had organised a number of camps in every ward for inclusion of names, but people didn’t turn up. The entire voter list is available on the net, but citizens don’t see it.”
