PERNINTHALMANNA: A controversy erupted on Monday after a ballot box, that had gone missing from the Perinthalmanna constituency, was found in the district cooperative joint registrar's office in Malappuram. The ballot box contained special postal votes. This was one of the three boxes that were left uncounted following a dispute. The controversy erupted at a time when the High Court is scheduled to consider the petition filed by left independent candidate KPM Musthafa questioning the election results on Tuesday.

Musthafa had lost to Najeeb Kanthapuram of the Muslim League by just 38 votes in the last assembly elections. 348 special postal votes were not counted as the officials did not sign the ballot covers. Following this, Musthafa approached the high court against the invalidation of so many votes.

Musthafa demanded that special postal votes kept in the Perinthalmanna sub-treasury should be transferred to the custody of the high court. This was accepted by the court. When the officials arrived to shift the postal votes, the box was found missing. It was found in the cooperative office after two hours. Meanwhile, UDF and LDF came forward with the allegation of a coup.

The postal votes were checked in six tables at Boys Higher Secondary School in the municipality. The ballot papers of tables 1, 2, and 3 were sealed in one box and those of tables 4, 5 and 6 were sealed in another box. The second box was the one that went missing.

Decisive votes

1,65,616: Total votes recorded

76,530: Votes received by Najeeb

76,492: Votes received by Musthafa
38: Najeeb's majority

348: Uncounted votes