Repolling on 13 booths in Tamil Nadu, Confirms the Election Commission

The failure of mock poll data and the votes of elderly people cast by agents of various parties are the factors that lead to repoll in 13 polling booths across Tamil Nadu. The Chief Electoral Officer, Satyabrata Sahoo said that these repoll’s will take place along with 4 assembly byelection’s scheduled on 19th May 2019. The 13 booths which include 8 from Dharmapuri, 2 from Theni and each 1 from Tiruvallur, Cuddalore and Erode respectively.

Among the 8 booths under Dharmapuri constituency (Paapireddipatti), undergone a suspicious act by polling agents where they entered into voting compartment along with voters in multiple occasions led to scrutiny. The CEO said, “Voters didn’t cast their vote in a fair manner and was recommended repoll by the returning officers of Dharmapuri Lok Sabha Constituency.” On Tiruvallur (SC) [Poonamalle] Lok Sabha constituency, the officers failed to clear the mock poll data and started polling and showed the variation of about 38 votes. Hence, repoll is slated here.

There was a repoll in Cuddalore LS constituency, because of the dislocation in the candidate set, EVM resulted with an error where the blue button started malfunctioning. In Theni Lok Sabha seat under Andipatti constituency, VVPAT slips of mock poll data weren’t removed from EVM, but the mock poll has been conducted without any flaws. Meanwhile, in Periyakulam (Theni LS), the CRC (Close Result Clear) protocol was not followed and failed to reset. In addition to that, EVM’s and VVPAT’s are altered without prior permission.

At Erode constituency, before starting the poll the mock data of 50 votes are not cleared. It was also found that 9 votes went missing, where 41 votes are registered instead of 50. Sahoo also explained that the same issue persisted with other 43 booths and was ordered for VVPAT counting by EC. He also confirmed that In-case of repolling is required the EVMs and VVPATs will be opened under the presence of political parties.