GP polls witness high turnout

GP polls witness high turnout

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, May 13:  More than 900 people, who had been displaced from Block-3 of Permude Gram Panchayath of Mangalore Special Economic Zone (MSEZ) Ltd., cast their votes in the GP elections on Wednesday. A large number of them were picked up by air-conditioned cars, taken to polling stations, and then dropped back home. Block - 3 witnessed more than 75 percent turnout. 

Jaya Moolya, one of the GP candidates, had predicted that only 150 voters would cast their votes; however, he was proved wrong when voters arrived in their hundreds. He said that his rival Deepak Permude hired the cars to bring the people to the polling stations. However, Deepak Permude said that Moolya was responsible for the car service. Voters say that both Permude and Moolya hired around 8 cars to take the people to the polling booths. 

High voter turnout was also witnessed at Kilinjar in Kuppepadavu, which is around 25km from Mangalore, despite the fact that several voters had threatened to boycott the elections because of the failure of the authorities to satisfy their demands. Before noon, nearly 60 percent of them had exercised their right to vote. 

Some voters were confused about the voting process, owing to which there were minor quarrels. At Kilinjar, the police had to intervene after supporters of rival candidates accused one another of trying to influence voters. At Adoor, allegations were levelled against a candidate and his supporters of trying to confuse voters regarding symbols. At Karelia, a candidate and his supporters were accused of trying to campaign within the forbidden 100km radius of the polling booth.