Low voter turnout: Hyderabadis don’t walk their talk

Continuing the unfortunate string of low voting percentages, the city recorded less than 50 per cent voter turnout.

Hyderabad: Hyderabadis have once again let down the electoral process. Despite months-long awareness activities and elaborate campaigns to pump up voter participation, denizens of Nawabi city failed to turn up at the polling centers on Monday.

The only crowd that one could see at most of the total 3,986 polling centers were the political party workers and election officials who had set up makeshift stalls to help guide the voters. But sadly, a significant part of their time was spent waiting for the next voter.

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Continuing the unfortunate string of low voting percentages, the city recorded less than 50 per cent voter turnout. While Hyderabad Parliament Constituency saw the lowest polling percentage at 39.17 per cent, Secunderabad had a slightly higher 42.48 per cent with Malkajgiri recording 46.27 per cent. For the by-polls of the Secunderabad Cantonment assembly elections, 47.88 polling per cent was recorded.

If you log in to X (formerly Twitter) and search for ‘Hyderabad’, one of the first tweets you would find will most probably be a citizen bashing the government for not fulfilling their duties. Be it garbage on the roads, power cuts, or their expert opinion on current affairs – Hyderabadis do not shy away from voicing out their concerns. However, on the day when they were actually expected to make their voices heard, more than half of the electorate was nowhere to be seen near the polling centers.

This sorry state of voter apathy in Hyderabad dates back to several elections. For some reason, this urban metropolis has not been able to score a decent poll percentage in recent times.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the voter percentage was a mere 46.5 per cent for the Secunderabad parliamentary constituency, while the percentages for Hyderabad and Malkajgiri were 44.84 and 46.93 per cent only. In 2014 too, the voter turnout remained between 51 to 53 per cent for these seats. Similarly, at the recent 2023 assembly elections, the voter turnout in the Hyderabad district was just 47.88 per cent.

These dismal numbers were recorded after the district election authorities, NGOs and the media facilitated multiple interventions to aware the public of the significance of voting. This time around, the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) program was conducted on a large scale in the city, but to no avail.

MISSING

Name: Hyderabad Voters

Features: Lazy and nonchalant

Last seen: On Twitter

Additional Notes: Known to vanish when queues form

Reward: A sense of civic duty

If found, please report to the Ministry of Voter Apathy for a crash course in citizen responsibility.