Voting delayed as EVMs break down

KOLKATA: Snags in electronic voting machines (EVMs), several of them happening right at the beginning of the poll day, led to voting delays in several booths with a few elderly voters being forced to return home, unable to stand in the heat till replacement arrived an hour or more later.


Though residents had lined up at the booth at Naktala High School even before polling started at 7am, the first vote could be cast only around 8.30am, when the

EVM

was replaced.

At South City College off Golpark, voting began half an hour behind schedule at 7.30am, also due to an EVM snag. Similar glitches at the start of voting were reported from Agarpara municipality health centre, Saroj Basu School on Dum Dum Mall Road and Rabindrapalli AP School near Kestopur. At Bamanpara Bazaar in Gobra, an EVM developed a

snag

after 156 votes had been cast. A similar problem was reported from the Motijheel Girls’ High School booth.

The voter-verified printed audit trail (

VVPAT

) machines also slowed down the process as each voter had to wait for at least 7 seconds after pressing the EVM button to check the slip. Gautam Bandhyopadhyay, stranded in a long queue at Anandapur Primary School off Ruby, felt it had increased booth occupancy.