The ongoing suppression in Kashmir is a reason why we stayed away from the panchayat polls, young boys at Batagund Mawer village in this northern district said Tuesday as the area went for polls in the fourth phase.
An interesting scene was witnessed in a polling station here where polling agents were busy with their electoral lists and asking their acquaintances to “bring the remaining persons to vote”.
A candidate who was behind by two votes at a particular time was seen calling his brother to get someone from their neighboring village to cast his vote so that he can win the seat.
When the counting was held after the polling closed at 2pm, one of the contestants won a seat by a margin of 11 votes.
A candidate in Lawoosa area had put up posters in his village which read: “school bag par mohar laga kay, Mashooq Ahmad ko kamyab karay.”
“With the use of these posters, I can perhaps get a good number of votes as I saw many MLAs using the same technique during the previously-held elections here,” Ahmad said.
Security was tightened at some polling stations situated in forest areas to avoid any untoward incident, said a local police officer.
However, young boys at Batagund-Mawer area in Handwara said: “We stayed away from the elections because we are being harassed on a daily basis by government forces on one pretext or the other. We boycotted this election not just because of the Hurriyat’s boycott call, but to enable boycott in the coming assembly election also which is more important than this.”
56.1 percent votes were polled in Mawer-Qalamabad in the fourth phase of panchayat elections held Tuesday.