EC takes serious note of snags, repoll likely in some booths

LUCKNOW :The Election Commission (EC) has taken a serious view of faults in voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines during bypolls for the Kairana Lok Sabha and Noorpur assembly seats on Monday.

The commission has sought a report from chief electoral officer (CEO) L Venkateshwar Lu as well as the returning officers of Kairana and Noorpur seats. After examining his report, the EC is likely to order a repoll in the booths in which polling was disrupted due to malfunctioning VVPATs. Lu said since the start of the polling at 7 am, several complaints regarding dysfunctional VVPATs were reported. The polling officers changed 384 VVPATs after the faults came to light during voting. The officers were examining if the faults were technical or due to a sudden increase in temperature. Complaints about three EVMs not working properly were also being looked into. The chief election commissioner had been briefed about the faults in VVPATs, Lu said. The commission had installed 2651 EVMs and 2596 VVPATs for both the seats. Earlier, the political parties had demanded the use of maximum number of VVPATs so that voters could cross-check.

As a result, the VVPATs manufactured by Electronic Corporation of India Limited were pressed into service. They were also used in the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha byelection in March.A delegation of the Samajwadi Party (SP), Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), led by senior leaders, submitted memorandum to CEO to protest against faults in the EVMs and disruption in polling.

Lu said the Election Commission had taken cognizance of the memorandum of the three political parties. The EC is considering to hold repoll on the booths where polling was disrupted for over two hours, a person familiar with the matter said. The date of the re-poll will be announced on Tuesday, he said.

Meanwhile, two persons were taken into custody after a clash between supporters of RLD and BJP in Bhura village located in Kairana Lok Sabha segment, DIG (Law and Order) Praveen Kumar said. The policemen also pacified voters who were protesting over the fault of the VVPATs, he said.

Along with civil police, the EC deployed 53 companies Central Paramilitary Forces (CPMF) and 10 companies of Provincial Armed Constabulary. The EC monitored voting in 184 sensitive polling booths through webcasting. The EC also deployed three general observers, one police observer, two expenditure obse rvers, 169 sector magistrates, 22 zonal magistrates, six static magistrates and 336 micro observers.