Poonthura councillor to boycott Smart City polling over venue

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Although, Poonthura councillor Peter Solomon had decided to boycott the smart city Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) polling, the venue for polling in his ward has been decided. He says that it was without consulting him that the Corporation decided to fix St Thomas Higher Secondary School, Poonthura, as the venue. As Poonthura was not part of the seven shortlisted proposed projects for Area-Based Development, the councillor had decided not to take part in the process.

He had expressed his dissent at the all-party meeting in which the shortlisted areas were announced. “The coastal area has been neglected. It was with a lot of enthusiasm that the people here contributed ideas. Now, I do not want to tell them that they will have to vote for other areas. Many have already criticised me, saying that ‘it is because of the councillor’s inability to push for the ward that it was not chosen’,” Peter Solomon says. It is learnt that only 60 of the 100 ward councillors provided venues for the poll on February 11.

Sources say that in the rest of the wards, the Corporation chose the polling stations which recorded the highest votes in the past elections. But without the support of the 40 councillors, it is likely that people might not even find out about the polling. In fact, some councillors are yet to hear about the polling. Sreekanteswaram councillor Maya Rajendran says that she missed the all-party meeting, and later no one informed her about choosing the venues.