Re-election at 14 places tomorrow: SEC

Sanjeev Singh Bariana

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 31

The State Election Commission (SEC) on Monday ordered repolling at 14 places in different parts of the state on January 2, 2019.

Spread over eight districts, repoll will be held from 8 am till 4 pm. The results will be declared the same day. State Election Commissioner Jagpal Sandhu said, “based on reports of different election-related complaints, the commission felt that 14 cases were genuine and needed repoll. The reasons are printing of wrong ballot papers and snatching/burning of ballots.”

The revised SEC data showed that the overall voting percentage was 80.38. Mansa with 88.21 per cent turnout witnessed maximum polling. Sangrur with 86.55 per cent was second, followed by Fazilka with 86 per cent. Repoll has been ordered for the entire panchayats at Wadala Bhittewind and Daleh in Amritsar district, Bajurgwala in Gurdaspur, Lakhmir ke Uthar in Ferozepur, Devatwal in Ludhiana, and Hari Majra, Lachdu and Mehmadpur in Patiala. Repolling has also been ordered at Ward number 5 and 6 of Chaura village in Gurdaspur; Mohalla Nanakpura of Nanakpura in Ferozepur and Ward number 7 of Saidpur Jhiri in Jalandhar. Panchayats of Tardak and Ghataur villages in Mohali and Rattangarh in Pathankot district will have repoll for the posts of sarpanches.

In Lakhmir Singh Uthar village in the Mamdot block, a 60-year-old man was run over by an SUV after some persons set a ballot box on fire. Ballot papers were torn in Daleh and wrong ballot papers were given to voters in Wadala Bhittewind villages of Amritsar district. Booth-capturing was reported at Devatwal in Ludhiana district. In Lachdu and Mehmadpur villages, there were mistakes in the printing paper and in Hari Majra village, the ballot paper was allegedly stolen.

Dera Bassi MLA NK Sharma met the SEC and submitted a list of complaints regarding the alleged high-handedness of the authorities at the Congress’ behest. “In Naraingarh Jhuggian village near Dera Bassi, our 41 votes were wrongly rejected. In Shabgarh, our candidate was declared the winner for the post of a panch, but, soon the result was revised showing him as having lost,” Sharma added.