Agra: Voting was delayed at several polling booths in Firozabad during the third phase of civic body elections on Wednesday, over technical glitches in electronic voting machines (EVMs).
“We had to wait for a long time as EVMs were non-functional. We were informed by officials that it will take some time to replace the faulty machines,” said Anurag Chaubey from booth no. 256 in ward no. 42, Ramnagar.
Polling was also interrupted at booth no. 160 where the ‘beep’ sound, which acknowledges recording of the vote, was not being heard after pressing the button on the machine. Reports of EVM malfunction were also received from booth no. 334 of Hunda Wala Bagh, booth no. 322 in ward no. 51, booth no. 241 of ward no. 39 and wards no. 34 and 48.
Faulty EVMs were reported in the first phase of the polls on November 22 in Meerut and Kanpur, where voters had complained that the machines were recording votes only for the BJP candidates irrespective of the button pressed. In the second phase, Lucknow booths had reported technical glitches in the machines.
However, Firozabad district magistrate Neha Sharma said that the problem was with the batteries of the EVMs and they were replaced. She admitted that voting was disrupted for a few hours but resumed soon. “We have not received any complaint about EVMs registering votes for a particular party,” she added.
In ward no. 31, the public boycotted voting, alleging that the names of 1,000 voters were missing from the electoral rolls. They alleged that the booth-level officer had deleted the names on purpose to help a particular candidate.
Several incidents of bogus voting were reported from polling booths in the district. Four persons including two women were detained by the police from booth no. 7 at Rajkiya Inter College over these charges. They were released later after polling concluded.
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