Why did 22.10% of the voters in the district remained away from voting?

Mangaluru: The voting that took place in Dakshina Kannada Lok Sabha constituency is the record highest till now and in this way, the voters have once again garnered much appreciation on the state level.

But, even though the district is considered to be district of the intelligent, around 30% of the voters in the district from the city to rural areas failed to cast their votes. Hence it is worth noting that almost 22% of the voters in the district chose to stay away from voting.

This is so because during the 2014 Lok Sabh elections, 77.19% of voting was achieved in the constituency and thereby was also appreciated for achieving the highest amount of voting in the entire state.

But in comparison to the previous election, this time it is more. The district administration and the SVEEP committee were able to increase the percentage by .71% through their voting awareness campaigns. In other words, even with enough voter awareness programmes and involvement in social media, there are other reasons because of which even more voters were not brought towards the polling booths.

Most of them are not those who chose not to vote and spent the time at home. Instead, they were devoid of the opportunity to exercise their franchise due to inevitable emergency situations and they amount for the most out of the 22%. A few others were abroad, some have deceased but their names have remained in the voters’ list which altogether has affected the fluctuation in the approximate voting percentage.

Reason for not achieving the goal

SVEEP had organised several programmes on voter awareness and yet the goal of achieving 90% of voting was not achieved. In comparison to the rural areas, the voting percentage is lower in the urban areas. The total voting in Mangaluru, Mangaluru City North and Mangaluru City South is 75.49%, 75.31% and 70.21% respectively, which is much lesser than the rural areas.

The journey of vehicle drivers

Drivers of various vehicles including tourist vehicles, lorries and others were not possible to cast their votes since they were out of station on duty.

Holiday pleasure and private programmes

In the backdrop of holiday, a few people might have gone somewhere on a tour or for some other reason. Besides, there might have been the inevitability to participating in private programmes in Mumbai or some other area.

At some places the stats on the amount of voting may have fluctuated since the names of the deceased may have not been deleted from the voters’ list. Voting is everyone’s right and it is everyone’s duty to cast their votes during the Assembly elections, Lok Sabha election and Local body election. We can select good candidates through our votes. It is through voting a good nation can be created.

Patients admitted at hospitals

What is surprising is that during this time’s election, there have been instances where patients admitted in hospitals went to the polling booth and cast their votes. Btu, those patients who were in serious condition were unable to cast their vote.

Those in abroad

Hundreds of people from various corners of the world came to the district to cast their votes which signifies that all realize that voting is their responsibility. But a few others were unable to come and cast their votes due to the unavailability of holidays or plane tickets because of which there might have been a drop in the voting percentage. When in other country, following their rules is compulsory and some may not have been able to come due to some problem there.