Dwellers of the Dal Lake in Srinagar that went to polls in the final phase of the municipal elections on Tuesday stayed indoors, siding with the strike and boycott of the elections called by the separatists.
This correspondent roamed around the poll-bound areas of the lake and found most people did not even know who the candidates in the fray were or where polling booths were.
However, inside the lake opposite Sub-divisional police office Nehru Park, authorities had set up three polling in one building where even the candidates themselves had not turned up to vote until later afternoon.
At polling booth no 64, where five candidates were competing for votes, just two votes out of 995 were polled until afternoon.
“Candidates themselves are yet to exercise their franchise here,” a poll official told Greater Kashmir.
“One male voter and a female exercised their franchise early in the morning.”
At another polling station in the same building, three votes were polled out 801 listed. “We did not see any candidates or their agents since morning,” another poll official said.
In the third polling booth, two persons had voted until well into the afternoon. Authorities had arranged more than a dozen Shikara boats for ferrying voters to polling stations.
“We are here since the morning and we are only ferrying security officials and other government officials,” said one Shikara owner.
“We did not see any voter since the morning.” Tajdar Mohi-u-din, who lives along the Boulevard area and lives off tourism business, said he had witnessed no electioneering in the area.
“When I saw the security forces spread along the road in good numbers I came to know about the elections,” Mohi-u-din said.
“I am unable to understand why we do not know names or the candidates.”
Another lake dweller, Abdul Karim said he might have thought of voting if any candidates had approached voters.
“The candidate should have met us with his promise of solving the problems,” Karim said, adding that nobody came to ask for votes.
“Who to vote for when nobody asks you?”