In occupied Kashmir, an overwhelming majority boycotted the third phase of the so-called polling for the Indian Parliamentary elections in the territory on Tuesday as over 86 percent voters did not exercise their franchise.
During the polling held for the 1st phase of the three-phased Islamabad constituency of Lok Sabha, 65 polling booths witnessed zero votes in the constituency. Of these polling booths, 40 belonged to Bijbehara – the hometown of the former puppet Chief Minister and President of pro-India Peoples Democratic Party Mehbooba Mufti. Bijbehara had 120 polling booths set up for 93,289 voters. A total of 1,893 electorate or 2 percent exercised their franchise when the polling ended at 4 pm.
Even many family members of Mehbooba Mufti did not turn up at the polling booth to cast their vote. Mehbooba’s brother and former so-called minister for tourism, Tassaduq Mufti, was among the family members who choose to stay away from the polling process. The other family members of Mehbooba who did not exercise their franchise included her cousin and senior PDP leader, Sajjad Mufti, his wife and two children. The wife of Mehbooba’s uncle Mufti Amin also did not turn up for voting.
Most of the polling stations in Bijbehara remained deserted as residents did not vote. The polling staff waited patiently for the polling time to get over.
A polling officer at a booth said, “One voter every 30-40 minutes is what we have been receiving. The people do not seem to be interested at all.”
It is to mention here that the Joint Resistance Leadership had called for boycott of the election drama.
