Hyderabad: The voting percentage for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal corporation (GHMC) held on Tuesday is announced to be 45.7 per cent for 149 divisions, with repolling to be done in one division, Old Malakpet on December 3.
However, The voting percentage this year was just 0.69 percent more than the 2016 GHMC polls, which calculated about 45.3% for 150 divisions.
What was expected to be a noisy and fierce election turned out to be a damp squib, as the GHMC elections came to an end on a very lacklustre note, with less than half the city’s population turning out to vote even until 5 p.m.
The voting percentage remained very less in the first two hours as many as 3.1 per cent people completed voting by 9:00 am. A few polling stations such as the one at AV College, Domalguda, showed promise, with the booths recording over 12 %polling before 10 a.m.
The same enthusiasm, however, was not visible at other polling stations. At one booth in Old Bowenpally, the polling had remained below 20 % even after 1 p.m. Young voters, whose contribution was expected to tip the scales, were conspicuous by their absence at several polling stations. The overall polling percentage rose to 8.9% by 11 a.m., 18.2 % by 1 p.m. and to 29.76 % by 4 p.m.
The results for the GHMC polls will be out on December 4.
In the 2016 polls, the TRS swept the election by winning 99 out of the 150 wards, while the All India Majilis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) won 44, leaving the BJP, Congress, and TDP with the remaining wards.