Re-election at three Patiala booths today
CHANDIGARH/PATIALA: The state election commission on Monday announced re-polling at three booths in Patiala’s Patran and Samana municipal councils. The re-election is scheduled to be held on Tuesday.
An official spokesperson of the election commission said that it had received reports from returning officer of Patran that some miscreants ‘damaged’ the EVM in the polling booth number 11 at ward number 8. Similar reports came from Samana where unknown persons damaged the voting machine at booth numbers 22 and 23 in ward number 11.
“Taking serious note of these incidents, the commission has announced to nullify the earlier polling conducted in these booths and ordered to re-poll under Section 59 (2)(A) of the Punjab State Election Commission Act, 1994 and has further ordered re-polling,” he said.
FIRs have been registered against the culprits under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapons), 149 (unlawful assembly) and 171-F (undue influence or personation at an election) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and provisions of the Representation of the People Act.
More than 150 unidentified people have been booked in three different cases for damaging EVMs and capturing booths during municipal elections in Samana and Patran.
The accused had barged into booth numbers 22 and 23 in Samana and 11 in Patran and created ruckus by threatening officials on duty and damaging election material. The miscreants also attacked a police team at Patran with sharp-edged weapons and sticks.
Captain maligned the democratic system: AAP
Alleging booth capturing by the Congress in local body polls, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday said that chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh let the state down and maligned the democratic system by failing to maintain law and order.
Demanding Amarinder’s resignation, AAP MLA Aman Arora alleged that all the incidents on the polling day proved that the state election commission and the police worked as “the wings of the Congress”. “Civil and police officials, dancing to the tunes of Congress, will have to pay for their deeds,” he said at a press conference here, listing Samana, Rajpura, Patti, Bathinda, Abohar, Fazilka, Kapurthala and Ferozepur as places from where incidents of violence and bogus voting were reported.
He alleged that the Amarinder government had used violence and state machinery to stop the people from voting and exercising their political rights.