HYDERABAD: Expressing concern at voters’ apathy to exercising their franchise in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections yesterday, Lok Satta Party president Jayaprakash Narayan today said that the voters should realise that no amount of arm-chair criticism of politics and politicians would provide them an iota of relief for the next five years.
``The voter behaviour does not bode well for democracy. When voters remain indifferent, parties with no credible and practicable agenda sweep the elections by luring pliable voters with money and liquor, and fielding candidates with criminal antecedents,’’ he remarked at a news conference here today.
The LSP leader observed that the GHMC electorate had once again underlined the truth in the maxim that bad governments were elected by good people who do not go to the polling booths. Voters themselves would pay a heavy price for their indifference since their day-today living hinged on the type of candidates they elected or chose not to elect. ``Politics is the only means by which voters could improve their living conditions.
They can dictate politics and politicians by effectively deploying the weapon of vote in their hands. Instead, the voters have now conceded the battle, even before it has begun, t o politicians.’’ With regard to complaints of names missing from the voters’ list, Jayaprakash remarked that the authorities concerned should be ashamed of the state of affairs. As for the suggestion that voting be made compulsory with attendant penalties for failure to vote, he said that its implementation in a vast country like India would be riddled with many problems.
He expressed his distress and dismay over the depths to which public discourse descended in the recent past.
The LSP leader took strong exception to the `false’ propaganda unleashed by TDP against his party’s candidate that the latter had distributed money to voters in Baghlingampally municipal division. He also took exception to the comment that he violated the election code by asking people to exercise their franchise by sending SMS a day before the polling.
``I am ready to face any prosecution on that count. Should the Lok Satta Party take lessons from liars and backstabbers?’’ he asked.
