SRINAGAR: The 300 polling booths of two South districts of occupied Kashmir were ‘deserted’ with missing polling agents and scared polling staff, Kashmir Media Service reported.
According to details, Pulwama and Shopian districts recorded the lowest turnout in the final phase of the polling, which was less than 3 per cent on Monday, as per the comment of a Srinagar-based English daily on Indian parliamentary elections.
Chief Electoral Officer Shailendra Kumar said the twin districts recorded a voter turnout of 2.81 per cent with 300 out of 695 polling booths seeing no voting in election on the Islamabad’s Lok Sabha seat. 266 polling booths in Pulwama and 37 in Shopian—28 in Shopian assembly segment and 9 in Wachi witnessed zero voting.
As per officials, 2.14 percent voting was recorded in Pulwama and at the same time, Shopian district, spread over two assembly segments, saw 2.88%. However, independent sources say that the actual turnout is far less than officially stated 2.81 per cent.
Nine polling booths saw less than seven votes cast in Wachi and 14 booths were such where less than five votes were polled in Shopian.
Officials at several polling stations were idling around, while troops maintained a vigil against possible disruption by local youth, as reported by Kashmir Media Service.
