347 VVPAT machines develop tech snag
Polling was called off at some places a number of times
Several voters across the state experienced problems during the polling process on Thursday as 347 voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines, installed for the first time in the Himachal assembly elections, developed a technical snag.
The election commission had installed 11,115 VVPAT machines at 7,525 polling stations across all 68 constituencies in the state.
The paper-trail machine gives a receipt to the voter, verifying the vote casted in favour of the candidate, against whose name the button is pressed.
Polling could not begin at Deleg polling station in Bilaspur district till noon.
Chief electoral officer Pushpender Rajput admitted that the machines developed a technical snag at some places but they were rectified. Though the poll panel had launched a statewide drive ahead of polls to disseminate information on the use of VVPAT machines, the polling staff at some centres had difficulty in operating them.
Election commission officials said the machines a developed snag at 218 polling booths during the mock poll and after the actual polling began at 8am.
The voters had difficulty to exercise their franchise in Kaza, the subdivisional headquarters of the remote Spiti valley in the Lahaul and Spiti district.
“The machine developed a snag at 11am. It took an hour for technicians to fix the problem. The machine again stopped functioning at 4pm leading to another delay in polling, Tenzin, a voter told Hindustan Times over phone.
Similar reports were received from Kangra, Mandi, Shimla and Sirmaur districts.
POLLING COULD NOT BEGIN AT DELEG POLLING STATION IN BILASPUR TILL NOON