Three digit election results have brought down into big disrepute the municipal elections held despite boycott by two largest mainstream political parties in Jammu & Kashmir state. It has not happened even in 1989 Lok Sabha elections when the lowest turn out of two and a half percent was recorded in three Lok Sabha constituencies in Kashmir valley. It has never happened before that a candidate who secured just 8 out of 9 votes polled in a municipal ward in Srinagar is declared elected and even naives can understand that the nine votes polled by the candidate were obviously the voters of his own family only and even the neighbours of the winning candidate did not bother to come out to vote. In yet another two surprising election results a husband and his wife were declared elected from two wards as BJP nominees in Anantnag district and here again it is proved beyond doubt that BJP has tried to woo a family in a town of several thousands of souls in many municipal areas of Kashmir valley. In yet another surprising election results the BJP has won majority in the Sopore municipal committee and Sopore as people not even remotely interested in politics know is strongest bastion of separatist politics in Jammu and Kashmir. Even before the closing date fixed for filing of nomination papers the newspapers had reported that despite thousands of attempts the Congress workers in Sopore did not oblige their MLA by flatly refusing him to join the poll fray even in a single ward of this apple town of North Kashmir.
How you can the government claim an election exercise fair, transparent and free when the election authorities have deviated from conventional and legal procedures and taken more than 12 hours to count just over 6% percent votes in Kashmir. Surely this election exercise which has shown just 3 digit results are reminiscent of the elections conducted by the erstwhile G M Bakshi and G M Sadiq governments.
Perhaps for the first time in the electoral history of Jammu & Kashmir the election authorities did not disclose the names of the candidates even after the last date for withdrawal of nominations and this in itself speaks volumes about the transparency in the conduct of the municipal elections in the state. What matters the most is the deviation of the Chief Electoral Officer from the normal conventions pursued in the electoral process as he instead of holding a press conference on the day of polling to brief media about the poll percentage preferred to issue a simple press release about the poll percentage on every evening on every polling day through Information department of the state government. Previously Chief Electoral Officers would always hold a press conference not only to brief media about the poll percentage recorded on the polling but also to take questions on the complaints of the contesting candidates in different parts of the poll bound areas. So how you can the government claim an election exercise fair, transparent and free when the election authorities have deviated from conventional and legal procedures and taken more than 12 hours to count just over 6% percent votes in Kashmir. Surely this election exercise which has shown just 3 digit results are reminiscent of the elections conducted by the erstwhile G M Bakshi and G M Sadiq governments.
