GHMC polling percentage put at 46.55

The city had registered 45.29 per cent in the 2016 elections to the civic body.

Hyderabad: Low but still, higher. The final polling percentage in the GHMC polls conducted on Tuesday is 46.55 per cent. This final figure was announced around noon on Wednesday after polling concluded in 149 out of 150 divisions at 6 pm on Tuesday. A low percentage on most counts, the figure was still high considering Hyderabad’s voting history. The city had registered 45.29 per cent in the 2016 GHMC elections.

With most polling booths reporting a low turnout for most part of the day, and reports available at 5 pm yesterday indicating a polling of around 36 per cent, speculations were rife that the overall percentage might just scrape past 40 per cent. With the latest announcement about the poll percentage of 46.55, yet another round of intense debate prevailed among political circles and general public about which party would benefit from the increased percentage now.

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The low turnout reports had in fact triggered a blame game, with the BJP State leadership wasting no time on Tuesday to accuse the State government and the State Election Commission for the low turnout. Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy, in fact, went to the extent of alleging that the TRS had connived with the SEC to bring down the voter turnout to work to its advantage. The Congress too joined the blaming contest, with TPCC working president Ponnam Prabhakar holding the TRS, BJP and the MIM responsible for the low turnout.

Even as debates on who might benefit from the low turnout were gathering steam, election authorities released the final figures on Wednesday, with the discussions and predictions now being based on the latest figures.

According to the figures, which could see minor changes once re-polling is held in Old Malakpet on Thursday, saw the highest polling in the Ramachandrapuram and Patancheruvu Circle with 65.09 per cent, while the lowest was in the Malakpet circle at 33.74 per cent. Apart from Ramachandrapuram and Patancheruvu, three other circles also recorded percentages above 50. These were Gajularamam (53.65), Goshamahal (51.80) and Hayathnagar (51.60).

Gajularamam was perhaps the only circle apart from RC Puram and Patancheruvu where all wards recorded percentages above 50 per cent. These were Gajularamam (58.61), Jagadgirigutta (52.91), Chintal (52.07) and Suraram (50.08). The other wards with the highest percentage included Ramachandrapuram (67.71), Patancheruvu (65.77) and Bharathi Nagar (61.89).

After Malakpet, Chandanagar Circle too had a low turnout with only 38.17 per cent of voters reaching the polling booths.

With the percentages out of the way, the final round of the election, which was preceded by a short but intense campaign, will be on Friday when the ballot boxes are opened for counting.

 

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