Hyderabad: Over 10,000 invalid votes were cast by teachers and graduates in the recent MLC elections, exposing the poor polling awareness among the educated.
Teachers blamed the State Election Commission for not raising awareness among voters as the system used was different from any other ballot voting. They claimed that the absence of the NOTA option was a major reason for the invalid votes.
Political pundits claimed that it was due to the negligence of the teachers’ and graduates’ constituencies that such a large number of votes turned out to be invalid. They claimed that if educated persons who perform poll duties were unaware of the polling procedure, then it is obvious that the general populace will struggle, too.
Out of the 1,15,359 votes polled in the Karimnagar-Nizamabad-Adilabad-Medak graduates constituency, 9,932 votes were invalid. The winner, Mr T. Jeevan Reddy of the Congress, got 56,698 votes and his main, Mr Sugunakar Rao Polsani, received 15,077 votes. While 9,932 votes were invalid, the third-placed Anjaneyulu Gurram got 5,196 votes.
In the teachers’ constituency election which were held in the same four districts, 19,346 votes were polled, of which 532 votes were invalid. Another 858 invalid votes were polled in the Warangal-Khamman-Nalgonda teachers’ constituency, the fourth largest were the invalid votes, behind the winner Alugubelli Narsi Reddy (9,021 votes), Mr Poola Ravinder (6,292) and Mr Puli Sarotham 1,883 votes). Mr Chava Ravi, general secretary, Telangana State United Teachers Federation, found fault with the election pattern.
He said, “Unlike the regular ballot voting, the voters had to vote in preferential order by marking the number in the box provided opposite the candidate’s name. Voters must write the number in the box without any punctuation marks, which was not made clear by the State Election Commission or even by the contestants.”
State Government Teachers’ Association general secretary M. Veerachary said that the absence of the NOTA on the ballot paper left the voters confused.
