In the first few hours, the voter turnout suddenly saw a significant drop in the municipal election polling today in Andhra Pradesh. The main reason for this was stated to be the voters being disallowed from carrying their mobile phones into the polling booths. Many voters went back thinking to return after sometime to cast their votes.
Some voters even put up objections for the restrictions imposed by the State Election Commission (SEC). The police and the polling staff strictly followed the rules. They also demanded the voters to wear face masks and have sanitiser before entry into the polling booths.
As hours passed by, there was a hue and cry from the voters and even the political parties’ agents. As a result, State Election Commissioner Ramesh Kumar gave the green signal for mobiles in the polling booths.
The mobile phones were actually banned following reports that the contesting candidates were giving money to the voters and asking them to get photo graphs of their ballot papers as proof. Now, the Election Commission is more worried about the fall in voter turnout.
