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New Delhi: The
national capital voted Sunday to pick a new team for its
trifurcated civic body, with more people coming out to vote this
election compared to last time. The percentage at close of voting
was much above the 2007 figure of 42.7 percent, officials said.
The polling figure was 43 percent at 4 p.m., the election
commission said.
Voting ended at 5.30 p.m sealing the fate of over 2,400
candidates.
"Voting percentage till 4 p.m. was 43 percent. This is higher than
the polling percentage of 42.7 percent in 2007 civic polls," said
an election commission official.
"The number is expected to rise once all the figures are
compiled," added the official.
Ballots were cast for 272 seats with a tough battle between the
incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress.
This is the first time the capital voted for the trifurcated
Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).
The election commission had earlier hoped for a turnout of around
50 percent with the help of awareness campaigns urging people to
vote.
Over one crore voters were eligible to exercise their franchise
across 11,543 booths in the capital to decide the fate of 2,423
candidates.
In the newly trifurcated MCD, the corporations of north and south
have 104 wards each, while the east Delhi corporation has 64.
while sanitation and development remained key issues for the civic
polls, people in some parts of the capital boycotted polls citing
poor development in their areas in the last many years.
Women voters, that formed 44 percent of total voters in the
national capital, turned up in high numbers, the commission
noticed.
A total of 30,000 armed police personnel were deployed at the
booths to ensure free and fair elections. The BJP, which rules the
corporation, had swept the 2007 elections in the then unified MCD
with 168 seats.
With the Delhi assembly elections due in end-2013, the results
will have significant impact on the morale of the parties.
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