By registering a stunning 74.29 per cent voter turnout, the district bettered all its previous poll figures.
Many are attributing the large voter turnout on the decision of the Christian community to vote in large numbers.
Christians have usually been indifferent to elections. The Mangalore City Corporation elections in 2007 witnessed a turnout of less than 20 per cent even in Christian-dominated pockets.
But the attacks on churches and moral policing finally pushed the community to take the elections seriously.
For the first time, the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) used e-mail to send the Ten Commandments to all Bishops in India. These commandments, scripted by Bishop Ivon Ambroise, defined the role of a Christian during polls.
Within a week, the United Catholics of Mangalore Diocese (UNICAD) begun circulating handbills from April 19, listing five commandments for Christians. The handbills insisted on compulsory voting even to the extent of using ‘tendered voting’.
A Christian woman in Moodbidri, after finding that somebody had cast her vote, insisted and exercised a tendered vote.
Caste Your Vote Andolan (CYVA) convenor Marcel Monteiro said two factors prompted Christians to vote in large numbers.
He said that the CBCI and Bishop’s circular witnessed the inclusion of 9,000 voters who until then had not bothered to vote. “Besides the Mangalore pub violence, church attacks and moral policing had forced Christians to take a firm resolve on voting out fascist forces.” Whether they have succeeded in achieving their goal will be known on May 16.
