Over 35 per cent of students today exercised their franchise in the morning leg of Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections with the voting percentage recording a dip of over 8 per cent than last year's overall turnout.
The second phase of the polling concluded at 7 PM statistics of which were not available yet.
Chief Election Officer for DUSU elections, D S Rawat, said voting went off peacefully with 35.89 per cent of students casting their vote in the morning leg of polls.
"The elections in the morning from 8.30 AM to 12.30 PM went off smoothly. The maximum turnout of 91 per cent was recorded at the Ayurvedic and Unani Tibbia College and the minimum was in Ramjas College at 13.34 per cent followed by Campus Law Centre at 15 per cent," he said.
"Minor technical glitches were reported in Aurobindo college but was rectified within few minutes. The voting percentage for evening college students, which took place from 3 PM to 7 PM in the second leg, will be declared later in the night," he added.
The counting of votes will be taken up tomorrow after which the results will be declared.
"The university had deployed a team of observers who visited the 51 centres where the polling took place in teams of two to check violations of code of conduct. DU administration had also installed CCTV cameras besides hiring commercial videographers to record election activities to ensure free and fair polling," Rawat said.
According to a senior police official, the polling went off peacefully and no incidents of violence were reported.
"A huge contingent of police was deployed at various polling centres of the university to ensure that no untoward incident takes place.
"The movement of vehicles was also restricted on Chatra Marg in North Campus to avoid any chaos or discomfort to students. The polling was peaceful," the official added.
While four colleges didn't conduct their students' union polls, many students kept away from the DUSU central panel polls.
The student outfits attributed the low turnout to the new policy of allowing only those students to vote who took admission and paid their fees by August 31.
Some students were also turned away by colleges from the voting counters as they did not have ID cards.
DUSU is the representative body of the DU students from most colleges and faculties. Apart from DUSU, which is an umbrella council, each college has its own students' union to which separate elections are held.
Polling began in morning colleges from 8.30 AM and concluded by 12.30 PM, while the students of evening colleges can cast their votes from 3 PM to 7 PM.
While the political slugfest at DU has over the decades been between Congress-affiliated National Students' Union of India (NSUI) and RSS' student wing Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Left-affiliated All India Students Association (AISA) is vying for the central panel posts with a series of campaigns done by the outfit in recent months to thwart alleged attempts of attacks on university campuses across the country.
Last year, ABVP had swept all four seats trouncing NSUI and AAP's Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS). The AAP's student wing is not contesting the polls this year.
A total of 17 candidates are in the fray for the four posts of DUSU office-bearers. While 7 candidates are in race for the post of President, 4 nominations have been validated for the post of Vice-President.
With a total of 1,23,246 voters, polling is taking place at 117 booths in 51 colleges.
