Complaint raised of mock poll error in Pathanamthitta too; Ten VVPAT slips for nine votes, extra vote for BJP 

PATHANAMTHITTA: There is a complaint against the electronic voting machine (EVM) during mock poll in Pathanamthitta constituency after Kasaragod. It is alleged that when nine votes were recorded, ten slips came in VVPAT. One slip of BJP came extra in VVPAT.

The incident happened during the mock poll held in Kanjirappally. The Congress workers have filed a complaint with the district collector. The district collector clarified that it was a technical fault and it has been resolved by conducting a mock poll. The mock poll was held in Kanjirappally on April 17.

There were allegations that a BJP candidate got extra vote in the mock poll held in Kasaragod constituency the other day. Chief Electoral Officer Sanjay Kaul later informed that it was baseless.

Following the complaint raised, a report was sought from the district collector of Kasaragod. Commissioning is the process of setting up EVMs for polls. It is carried out by engineers from Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) under the direct supervision of assistant returning officers. Commissioning takes place in the presence of the candidates or agents appointed by the candidates. Sanjay Kaul informed that it is being completely webcasted.

An extra VVPAT slip that came out during the mock poll caused confusion. After setting up the machines, the VVPAT slip was not printed during the initial inspection conducted by the officials and it came out during the mock poll. Note to be counted was written on this slip. Standardization done, VVPAT serial number was also recorded. It is a longer slip than other VVPAT slips. The slip for the preliminary examination was received during the mock poll. The chief electoral officer said that all the voting machines used in the Lok Sabha elections in the state are completely safe and flawless and there is no need to worry.

The agents of LDF and UDF candidates had raised complaints regarding BJP getting extra votes in the mock poll. The agents of LDF candidate M V Balakrishnan and sitting MP and UDF candidate Rajmohan Unnithan of Kasargod Lok Sabha constituency, filed a complaint with district collector K Inbasekar. All 190 voting machines were examined in the first round of mock polls. 20 machines were published at a time. There are ten options to cast a vote in a machine. After checking each option by pressing each time, it was clear that BJP got two votes from four machines. Even when the BJP symbol was not pressed, a vote was recorded in the party's account. Following this, the agents demanded to change these machines.