EIGHY THREE per cent voters across Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur, who voted during this week’s civic elections, have welcomed the Election Commission’s move to display posters giving details of educational qualification, assets, criminal records of contesting candidates outside polling booths. This was revealed in a first-of-its-kind statewide survey, conducted by Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE) under the Maharashtra Election Commission, to understand the electoral experience of voters of five corporations and Zilla Parsihads during the recently concluded polls. So far, there has not been any documented study describing a voter’s polling experience ever recorded. Watch What Else Is Making News: Of more than 10,000 voters who were surveyed on February 21, a total of 5,500 voters were from across Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik and Amravati municipal corporations. According to the study, the highest support for placing the posters outside polling booths was garnered from Mumbai, with as many as 2,388 voters giving it a thumbs up. While 81 per cent voters from Nagpur supported this move, Pune voters amounted to 75 per cent who gave this initiative a green signal. “Most of our respondents have given positive positive feedback about the presence of the posters at polling stations, which is a positive sign,” said Manasi Phadke, project-director of the election survey at GIPE. It was interesting to also learn what the voters made out of the posters. While voters in Mumbai used the information to choose a good candidate among those contesting, learning about criminal records was what Puneites found more interesting. Nagpur voters, however, were found to be interested in knowing the educational qualification of the candidates ahead of casting vote. Among the three civic bodies, the number of voters who read the posters was the highest among Pune voters with 46 per cent having seen it. However, two-third of voters who voted from Mumbai and Nagpur had completely missed even spotting the poster, the study found. Commenting on this, Phadke said, “Since it was for the first time that such a move was introduced, not many voters knew about this introduction. There needs to be more awareness brought about in this regard.” Another pressing issue that voters expressed during the survey was lack of facilities provided at polling booths for the differently abled voters. The worst rating to the preparedness and facilities to the differently abled was for Nagpur, while Mumbai fared much better in this regard. The voters also expressed satisfaction with the overall ease to vote, Mumbai once again leading in this regard. The least time taken by a voter, from the time of entry inside the polling station until exit, was by voters of Nagpur, who said to have spend 9 minutes. The maximum time was required by voters of Mumbai, who required about 24 minutes for completing the entire procedure.
