Glitches mar voting across city

 

 

 

 

The expectations of the city voters from Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) polls being held after a gap of eight years withered away as mismanagement of the election process was the dominant theme on Thursday. It ultimately affected the overall turnout that might barely cross the half century mark (51 %), as many voters got disillusioned after finding their names in different Prabhag, than one where they currently reside. At many places, during post afternoon session, the long queues that one used to witness were found missing. But somehow the thinning of voters at some dense localities of South Nagpur Assembly segment was made up by brisk polling in early hours at Central and West Nagpur booths.

 

Voters found themselves at receiving end of administration laxity as EVMs malfunctioned at many places that disrupted the voting momentum, apart from putting brakes on the acceleration of process. Particularly the EVMs disruption was dominant in North Nagpur Assembly segment, leaving voters confused. As any disruption of EVMs mean, halting of voting till the replacement machine was affixed, which again was time consuming process. But more particularly there was confusion among voters owing to change in the voting booths. The reason being NMC this time increased the number of booths to avoid crowding that was witnessed during the parliamentary and later assembly elections. So for many years the votes who used to vote at one particular school found their names missing, resulting in last minute frantic search.

 

The sorry situation arose as despite constant appeal from NMC, the voters did not bother to visit the booths and verify their names in the voting list to avoid last minute disappointment. However more prominent problem in voter list was division in family names to different booths. This complaint was heard from many booths when the families on reaching the booth found some of the names annexed to another Prabhag or some distant voting booth. The same was inexplicable as families said how could the names of single unit get divided in such cruel way, and sought answers from the election commission. Many of the voters told The Hitavada that within one building, three families found their names listed in three different polling booth.

 

As the elections were being held after a gap of eight-years, in early hours what was observed as teething troubles, soon became a common ailment. Particularly in North Nagpur assembly segment, the malfunctioning of EVMs occurred on unusual scale. So much so that, at one of the polling booth, entire set of 4 machines needed to be replaced that consumed nearly one hour of polling time. Despite undertaking massive training and cross checking the parameters, the civic administration it seems was under prepared to conduct a simple civic body election. All this contributed to dismal voting per centage which could have easily touched 60 per cent if the voters list were properly scrutinised.