Queues of voters were seen at some polling stations during the fourth and last phase of the municipal elections in Ganderbal district on Tuesday, while most booths wore a deserted look in tune with the boycott sentiment that marked the process.
Officials said 11.3 percent voter turned out was recorded in the district for 17 wards of the Ganderbal municipal committee polls.
Out of the total 8491 registered voters only 956 votes were polled in the local urban body elections, 506 male and 450 female.
Most polling stations wore a deserted look like throughout these four-phased elections elsewhere in Kashmir valley, but a few booths witnessed a rush of voters.
At polling booth Saloora-A, no vote was polled until noon, however by the end of the day eight votes were polls out of 428 amounting to 1.87 percent, and in ward number 2 of Beehama in the main town only 28 votes were polled out of a total 758.
Similarly, in ward 13 of Wanipora just 26 votes were polled out of 809.
However, moderate to brisk voting was witnessed in few wards of the Muncipal Committee of Ganderbal including Gangerhama-B, Saloora-C, Bamloora and Duderhama.
Queues of voters were seen outside the polling station of ward 12 Gangerhama-B and ward 14 Bamloora where 235 and 162 votes were cast out of 471 and 779 respectively.
In ward 17 of Saloora-C and ward 8 of Duderhama, 102 and 121 votes were polled out of 825 and 880 respectively.
Most of the voters here said that they voted for the development of their areas.
The participation of youth in the Municipal polls was quite negligible in almost all the wards. However men outnumbered women in casting votes.
“We decided to boycott as till our identity is at stake, we have got nothing out of these elections till now,” said a local, who didn’t want to be identified.
The district administration had made elaborate security arrangements for the elections which ended peacefully.
District election officer, Dr Piyush Singla and SSP Mohammed Khalil Poswal were supervising the electoral process.