The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Polling delayed in several booths

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 15, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Polling delayed in several booths

V. Venkatasubramanian

Major defects in machines necessitated replacement in 7 booths

KANCHEEPURAM: Commencement of the polling process was delayed at several booths in rural areas coming under the Kancheepuram constituency due to some problems faced by the poll duty staff in setting the electronic voting machine ready for polling.

Though major defects necessitating replacement of machines were reported from seven booths out of the 235 stations only, in some other booths the process was delayed as the officers failed to connect the ballot machine with ballot paper units properly. Apart from this, time taken by the staff, especially Central Government employees, to issue tokens to the voters after verifying their identity caused considerable delay in casting of votes.

Voters were seen waiting at booths in long queues at Nathapettai, Avalur, Kannadiyankudisai, Thammanur, Kammarajapuram, Kavanthandalam and Magaral this morning. In view of the slowness on the part of poll officials, less than 10 percent of voting was recorded at Nathapettai, Avalaur and Kannadiyankudisai in the first hour of polling. Ironically, most of the voters in these areas have produced Voter Indentification Cards to prove their identity.

Pell-mell withnessed

Polling booths at Thammanur and Magaral witnessed pell-mell as the policemen posted for bandobust duty were not able to control the crowd, especially women. At Magaral, a lone woman constable was seen trying her best to ensure women voters stand in a queue, in vain. At one point of time, a group of women fell due to the scramble as everyone wanted to cast their vote as early as possible.

At some places the identification of voters did caused some tense moments. A male voter who produced a College Identification card at Avalur was sent back to bring any other valid document for proof of identity since the ID card was issued for the academic year 2003-04. At Kalakattur, a wordy duel ensued between the AIADMK and DMK poll agents as the DMK agent objected to allow a woman to vote using a ration card in which her name was `wrongly' entered. But the presiding officer allowed the woman to cast her vote after ascertaining her identity with the village administrative officer. Another new and notable development, apart from deployment of Central Government staff for poll duty, in this byelection was the appointment of women as poll agents of the contesting candidates.

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