The Hindu : Poor voter turnout for bypoll

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 01, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Poor voter turnout for bypoll

By Our Staff Reporter

RAJAHMUNDRY MAY 31. Unprecedented apathy on the part of the 9.97 lakh-odd electorate marked the byelection to the Amalapuram Lok Sabha constituency, which passed off peacefully on Friday.

The result of the apathy was the lowest percentage -- about 39.1 -- of voter turnout this time. In the last three Lok Sabha elections, the turnout of voters was more than 70 per cent.

In the Assembly segments of Razole, Nagaram, Kotapeta and Amalapuram there was no semblance of any election day activity_ no queues of voters, no autos bringing dozens of voters, no tents for supply of slips to help voters cast their vote speedily. Incidentally, at many polling stations, there was only the agent of the TDP and there were no representatives for the two other parties in the field, viz the BSP and the RPI.

At the polling station in the ZPH School in Ethakota, only 45 out of 900 voters had exercised franchise by 10 am. The situation was still worse in another polling station in Razole where only 28 out of 824 voters had cast their vote by 11.30 am. The situation in the urban Amalapuram area was no different and just 150 of 676 cast their vote by 1 pm. However, in polling stations in Atreyapuram voters turned up in good number.

The percentage of polling was the highest with 42 in Amalapuram and Mummidivaram Assembly segments followed by 41 in Kotapeta and 40 in Tallarevu Assembly segments. The lowest percentage of 34 was recorded in the Allavaram Assembly segment.

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