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Reduced militancy led to higher voter turnout: Chief Election Commissioner

New Delhi: Less fear factor due to reduced militancy is the cause for the higher voter turnout in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls, according to Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami.

Mr. Gopalaswami told The Hindu: “In the last one year, there has been a reduction in militancy-related incidents and hence the fear factor was not there. The real success is wherever there was low percentage in the last elections, there was higher turnout this time and it showed that people wanted to participate in the democratic process in a big way.”

Asked whether the credit for this should go to the Commission, he said, “It is a victory for democracy. For us Jammu and Kashmir is another State. There is no reason to distinguish J&K elections as something different from five other States that went to the polls recently. By repeatedly talking about J&K polls as something different is not correct.”

Asked about his statement at the time of announcement of the polls that the Commission was taking a calculated risk, he said, “Initially the political parties were apprehensive about canvassing for the elections in a free and fair manner. In this context, the Commission felt that legitimacy of the elections would be lost if political parties are unable to canvass or mobilise support and, second, if people are kept away due to militant activities. Fortunately, less militancy resulted in political parties undertaking their campaign freely and people coming to vote in an atmosphere where there was no fear.”

Asked why J&K polls were held in seven-phases, he said, “we could have reduced it to four or five, but we had to take into consideration the availability of security forces since Assembly elections were also being held in five other States. In the higher reaches we conducted the polls in November considering the weather factor and polls were spread over to December in other areas.”

On preparations for the Lok Sabha polls, he said, “the Commission has not taken any decision in this regard. The revised electoral rolls would be ready by the middle of January, 2009 and any decision on holding general elections would be taken only thereafter.”

On complaints regarding the Thirumangalam by-election in Tamil Nadu, he said Deputy Election Commissioner J.P. Prakash would visit the constituency in the next few days for an assessment.

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