Activists, analysts blame EC for dip in voting percentage

After a month of election campaigning, Tamil Nadu went to polls on Thursday where the voting was conducted for 38 Lok Sabha constituencies and 18 Assembly bypoll constituencies. At the end of the day, the total polling percentage was 71.9.

The polling percentage had gone down by around 1.7 percentage when compared to that of 2014. The polling percentage was 73.68 in 2014. Political analysts blamed the irregularities in EC for the dip in poll percentage.

Political analyst Raveenthran Duraisamy, told DT Next, “There were many problems in polling booths. For instance, many voters could not find their names on the voters’ list and were in for a rude shock when they came to know that their names were missing from the polling booths.”

He also said that booth slips were not given to large number of people. “About 40 percentage of the people were not given booth slips in the state because of which many did not come for voting. Extended weekend coupled with vacation was another reason for decreased polling percentage as many went to their native places and skipped voting,” said Duraisamy.

Senior journalist Lakshmanan, said that Chennai is repeatedly witnessing low poll percentage due to the EC. “Voters in Chennai are much more educated than people in rural parts of the state and they have better understanding about the EC’s functioning. Because of the EC’s actions, they have lost confidence on the institution and so the voting percentage have gone down,” he said.

However, in Kanniyakumari constituency there were several complaints from fishermen that their names were missing. Justin Antony, a fishermen representative from Kanniyakumari, said, “Several thousands of fishermen could not vote as their names were missing from the voters list in Kanniyakumari district.”