People vote in Jammu and Kashmir urban local body elections
The trend of low voter turnout continued in the local body elections in Kashmir valley today as only 1.3 per cent of the 1.62 lakh electorate came out to vote in the first three hours of polling that began at 6 am.
The 20 wards of Srinagar Municipal Corporation, where voting is underway, saw only 0.8 per cent of the 1.53 lakh voters turn up, officials said.
In Anantnag district, only 100 of the 5,469 votes have been polled in the first three hours, officials said.
However, heavy polling is going on in Uri municipal committee of Baramulla district where 908 of the 3,552 voters have already cast their votes.
The poll percentage in the first three hours of polling was 25.6 per cent. There are 365 candidates in the fray for 96 wards of eight urban local bodies for the third phase comprising a total electorate of 1,93,990 people.
Officials said massive security arrangements have been put in place. They said additional staff has been deployed at polling stations that see a large number of voters.
Municipal elections, covering 79 municipal bodies with an electorate of about 17 lakh, are being held in four phases. The last phase will take place on Tuesday.
A total of 3,372 nominations have been filed for 1145 wards.
National Conference, Peoples Democratic Party and CPI(M) have boycotted the polls. The government has declared holiday on the day of polling in the municipal areas.