Tripura polls marred by EVM snags, 78.56 per cent voting registered

Agartala: Tripura went to the polls on Sunday wherein technical snags in EVMs and VVPATs resulted in late polling even beyond 2100 hours. The CEO Sriram Taranikanta termed the overall election process in the state and entire voting process as “fairly satisfactory” but hastened to add in the same breadth: “But then we would always say we could have done much better than what we have done”.

Till 2100 hours, he said voting turnout was 78.56 per cent. He also said repoll might be ordered in one booth in Karamcherra assembly constituency because the presiding officer forgot to refresh the EVM after mock poll.Late polling continued in about 100 polling booths across 40 assembly constituencies even after scheduled time of closing of voting process due to technical snags. 

Talking to reporters at a late evening press conference here, the CEO said while the polling went on"fairly incident free" the snags in VVPATs and EVMs did create hassles for the voters and posed hardships for them."Voting is continuing even as I address all of you....but these will be over soon. In many booths where late polling took place, election process is getting over," he said.

The scheduled time of voting as per the EC announcement was between 7 am and 4 pm. The technical glitches resulted in delay in commencement of the voting process in many polling booths.Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said while the polls went on peacefully, the technical snag had occurred due to VVPATs.

"We had made our best efforts from the Election department, we got cooperation from the state police, central forces and others. We also got good support from the Observers and the Election Commission," he said.

The technical snags came in under veiled attack from the state's ruling CPI-M party. Tripura state committee secretary of CPI (M) Bijan Dhar said, "The people of Tripura deserve to be thanked for casting their votes in today's polls despite the problems and delay they faced due to technical snags in EVMs and VVPATs".However, he said, "Even if it is unfortunate, it is true that the voters faced problems and hardships due to snags in VVPATS and EVMs"."It is true the normal course of casting vote by the people were hampered....and even now people are standing in long queues before some booths. Why this happened remain to be seen....Why these snags came into light in such big numbers?," he remarked.

Manik Sarkar cast his vote at Shishuvihar School at Agartala and exuded confidence that his party will record a convincing victory. BJP state unit chief Biplab Deb cast his vote at Udaipur.(UNI)