Voting begins for municipal polls
Samuel Kutty/Vinod Nair
Observer Online
Voting to elect members to Oman's municipal councils began on a fervent note in the morning at different voting centres. People were seen thronging different polling stations right from 7.30 am giving the indication of a higher voter turnout in the coming hours.
At the election booth at Al Wattaiah Girls School, where only female voters are allowed, the turnout was seen slowly ballooning by 10 am. Same was the number of voters turning out at the male voting centre at another school in Wattaiah.
The initial turnout shows satisfactory percentage of voting, said Governor of Muscat …….
“We are happy that a large number of people are turning out to exercise their franchise”, he told Observer.
As many as 731 candidates are vying for 202 seats, of whom 23 are women.
At the polling station in Ghubra, the largest centre in Muscat, with around 11,800 voters, voting was brisk especially during the hours between 8 and 10am. Speaking to the Observer, Eng Siham al Harthy, in charge of the voting process at the centre, said we expect the counting procedures to improve from the Shura elections last year, which was all only 35 per cent.
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