CRUCIAL VOTE?: Residents of the Secunderabad Cantonment queue up to cast their votes during the Board elections on Sunday. -Photo: Mohd. Yousuf

HYDERABAD: All the hype and hoopla stirred up by candidates during their extravagant campaigns failed to impress a majority of the voters as low percentage of voting marked the elections to the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) on Sunday.

The elections were being held after a long gap of nine years. The polling percentage, according to Returning Officer Prabhakar Reddy, was a mere 36.7 per cent. Only 70,361 voters from a total of 1,91,536 voters turned up at the 218 polling booths across seven wards.

If candidates spent tense moments with polling booths lying mostly deserted even at noon, voters who decided to exercise their franchise were in for disappointing experience. Many found their names missing from voter lists in spite of having proper identity documents.

At the Government Boys High School, Bowenpally, a woman voter with her photo identity card was told her name was deleted from the list. The reason mentioned was `deceased!' The shocked woman stood silent for a minute before flying into a rage.

"I am standing right in front of you. How can you say that I'm dead?" she screamed at the polling officer, who expressed his helplessness. The woman, after an argument, stomped out.

With officials sticking to the rulebook regarding identity documents, several others had similar experience as identity proofs they had produced were insufficient. There were a few instances of unsuccessful attempts at impersonation too.

"We had to submit our names from June 17 to 20 and four days were given for objections.

Most of these were working days and employees never got time.

The electoral roll should have been revised earlier so that everyone got time," said B. Ram Prasad, a `deleted' voter .

Taken into custody

Shika Goel, North Zone DCP, said a few persons who were trying to `seek' votes near polling booths were taken into custody and detained till 5 p.m. when the voting got over.

T. Arockianathan, SCB Executive Officer, said the election was otherwise smooth and that counting would begin at 8 a.m. on Monday at the PG College on SP Road.

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