Srinagar: The authorities have suspended high speed internet mobile internet services in South and central Kashmir including Srinagar and Ganderbal in wake of the final of the 4-phased election to urban local body polls on Saturday.
Official sources said that the high-speed internet was suspended before the voting started in the final phase at 6.a.m.
With many candidates elected unopposed and a number segments not receiving a single nomination, there is voting in only 37 of the 132 wards in the final phase of ULB polls. Among them, 12 wards are in Ganderbal, 25 in Srinagar including one ward (SMC ward 41) were re-polling is done to decide fate of five candidates.
In the final phase, the 250794 electorate will seal the fate of 156 candidates in Srinagar and Ganderbal districts.
In the first three phases polls, a majority of people stayed away from polling booths in Kashmir Valley for where the turnout was 8.3 per cent only in first phase, 3.4 in phase-II and 3.5 percent in penultimate phase.
Polling in both was by and large peaceful in the first three phases of four-phases of election to urban local bodies, which has been boycotted by two main regional parties – the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Eight municipal bodies spanning across six districts — all in Kashmir valley – were scheduled to go for polls in the final phase. However, out of the eight, only two see the voting. There is no contest in the rest of the six bodies.
The Ganderbal Municipal Committee has 12 wards out of the 17 in total. 25 wards in the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) are voting in the summer capital of the state.
Only these 37 wards see poling in which 156 candidates are in the fray — 38 in Ganderbal and 118 in Srinagar including 5 candidates of the one ward going for re-poll . Five candidates from Ganderbal and one from Srinagar have been elected unopposed.
The rest of the bodies – Pattan in Baramulla district of north Kashmir, Pampore, Pulwama and Khrew in Pulwama district, Shopian Municipal Committee in Shopian district and Dooru Verinag in Anantnag district, all in south Kashmir, will see no voting.
