The voter participation in Wednesday’s election in the three urban constituencies in Mysuru remained gloomy, like the last election, as the voter turnout was poor despite multiple campaigns, initiatives and activities carried out under SVEEP for increasing the voting percentage.
Compared to the polling in the rural pockets in the district, urban voters continued to display their apathy, not stepping out of their homes to vote. Nearly 40 per cent of voters in the three constituencies did not vote on Wednesday contrary to the enthusiasm shown to the festival of democracy in rural Mysuru which was overwhelming.
Despite sincere efforts by the Mysuru district administration and the Mysuru SVEEP Committee, Wednesday’s voter turnout in Krishnaraja was 59.55 per cent while Chamaraja and Narasimharaja recorded 61.05 per cent and 63.61 per cent voting respectively.
What’s the reason for the voters staying away from booths in every election?
An optimistic district administration could not reverse the trend despite the campaigns and identifying reasons for the dispiritedness.
Chamaraja, which is dominated by a sizable population of educated voters, saw a depressing voter participation. Same is the case in Krishnaraja and Narasimharaja. The outcome in 2023 is almost the same as in 2013 and 2018 barring an insignificant rise in voting percentage with the polling crossing 60 per cent in Chamaraja.
Deputy Commissioner and District Election Officer K.V. Rajendra had proposed to make Mysuru one of the model districts in terms of voter participation during this election, aiming to achieve an overall 100 per cent voting and nearly 80-90 per cent voting in urban constituencies.
The total voting percentage in Mysuru district comprising 11 constituencies was 74.34.
The total votes polled in Krishnaraja on Wednesday was 1,49,098. The total registered voters in the constituency was 2,50,357. In total, 59.55 percentage voter turnout was recorded. In Chamaraja, as against 2,46,243 registered voters, 1,50,322 turned out to cast their ballot, registering 61.05 per cent of voter participation. The total votes polled in Narasimharaja was 1,83,659 as against the total registered voters of 2,88,710, registering 63.61 per cent of voter participation.
The turnout of voters in 2018 was 59.54% in Krishnaraja, 59.27 in Chamaraja and 61.79 in Narasimharaja.
“When even centenarians go to the booths to vote in rural areas, why not the youth in the cities,” the activists ask.
Vasanthkumar Mysoremath of Voters Awareness Movement, Mysuru, said the people must stop being apathetic to voting and take elections seriously for establishing a strong democracy. Election after elections, the apathy has continued. People should not be callous towards the democratic system, he felt.
He felt online voting is a solution to improve voter participation. “This can help improve voting to as much as 95 per cent and also bring down election expenditure. “Taking Aadhaar as a base, the EC can mull over introducing remote voting, making use of the available technologies,” he opined.
Mr. Mysoremath suggested making voting compulsory and levying “non-voting” cess in water and electricity bills. “If people vote, the authorities can consider giving a rebate in the bills as this will be cheaper than splurging money on non-voters,” he argued.
