AMN
More than 68 per cent voter turn out was recorded in the first phase of Gujarat Assembly Elections. The polling for 89 assembly constituencies of the State was held today.
In 2012 assembly election, the polling percentage was 71.7 per cent while it was around 60 per cent in the previous assembly election. Briefing reporters in New Delhi this evening, Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha said, the voter turnout is encouraging and the final polling percentage may go up as final voting figures are yet to be tallied.
He said, the polling was peaceful and no untoward incident reported. Mr Sinha said, VVPATs machines were used in EVMs at all polling stations. He said, this time in the elections many new IT initiatives were taken.
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Faulty EVMs
Malfunctioning of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) was reported from many districts.
According to reports, as many as 70 EVMs malfunctioned in Surat, while 33 machines reported technical errors in Rajkot. While voting officially ended at 5 pm, people who had faced issues due to faulty EVMs were allowed to cast their vote with tokens even after the deadline. Chief Electoral Officer B B Swain ordered a probe. The EC later said the allegations were untrue.
Senior Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia had complained of possible EVM tampering in a Muslim-majority area (Memanwada) of Porbandar (his constituency).
Manish Doshi, a spokesperson for the party, said, “We hope the EC will take concrete action. It is necessary for a transparent polling process.”
The BJP said these allegations indicated the Congress was jittery and had accepted defeat. “When Congress wins elections, the EVMs have no problem but when it senses loss, it starts panicking. The EC has investigated and resolved the issue. The BJP has been working hard and will win,” said a party spokesperson.
Forty-five EVMs were replaced because of technical problems, according to estimates. But, the EC said this was only a small percentage of the total number of EVMs used (27,158) at 24,689 polling stations.