Despite Fierce Campaign GHMC Polls Sees Low Voter Turnout

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polling ended peacefully. The polling started at 7 am and ended at 6 pm. The overall voting percentage by 5 pm is 36.73 per cent. Official sources said that the final poll percentage would be released after compilation and as per the procedures. The polling percentage at 9 am was 3.95 and it was 20.35 at 1 pm.

In Rein Bazaar, the polling percentage was recorded at 0.56 per cent and Ameerpet, just 0.79 per cent at 1 pm while many other areas had below 10 percentages. In Old City, the polling percentage was 36.73 per cent.  There were no major incidents till 8 pm, except for the printing mistake at Malakpet polling booth. So, the Telangana State Election Commission (SEC) ordered repoll in all 69 polling stations of Ward number 26 after it was found that the symbol of CPI(M) was printed in the ballot paper instead of CPI. The repoll is now scheduled to take place on December 3 from 7 am to 6 pm in all the 69 polling stations.

Cyberabad Police Commissioner V C Sajjanar expressed concern over the low turnout and said that "Maybe voting history and details should be made important for admission into courses, for certificates and jobs among others."

Sundeep Kumar Makthala, president of the Telangana Information Technology Association, said that about 5.82 lakh workers are working in the IT sector in Hyderabad, with most of them now working from their hometowns, which was one of the key reasons for the low percentages.