Punjab repoll tomorrow at 48 poll stations

Amaninder Pal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 7

The Election Commission  today ordered re-polling at 48 polling stations in Punjab on Thursday.

Apart from 16 polling stations in the Amritsar parliamentary constituency, re-polling will be held at 12 polling stations in the Majitha Assembly segment, nine each for Muktsar and Sangrur seats and one each in Moga and Sardulgarh Assembly segments.

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The EC did not cite any reason for its decision. Sources, however, said barring two, all other booths going to the re-polls faced massive interruptions during polling due to snags in the newly-introduced voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) EVMs installed in 33 Assembly segments.

Re-polling has been ordered without there being any such demand by any major political party. In fact, the Aam Aadmi Party —whose leader Sanjay Singh visited Chief Electoral Officer VK Singh’s office on February 4 demanding one-hour relaxation in polling for 33 seats — had submitted to the EC that the party didn’t want re-polling at these seats.

A senior electoral officer said, “At some polling stations, votes could not be cast for the first two hours. At some other places, voters remained stuck in queues for long due to repeated interruptions in VVPAT machines. The EC has taken this decision to avoid legal implications due to this reason after the announcement of results.”

Re-polling would also be held at polling stations 145 and 86 of Moga and Sardulgarh, respectively, as conventional EVMs had developed snags there. Interestingly, the candidates will get only around six hours to do canvassing for the re-poll.